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Senator Bull and Sammy Ridley. 



THE STATESMEN 
SNOWBOUND 


By 

ROBERT FITZGERALD 


Illustrated by 
Wad -el- Ward 



New York and Washington 
THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 
1909 



T'Zs 



Copyright, 1909, by 

THE NEALE PUBLISHING COMPANY 


\l 1BRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

JUN;30 

Copyriicnt En^y 

n 

6uas3 

60PY A. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 


I. The Funeral 9 

II. Senator Bull and Mr. Ridley — 
Trials and Tribulations of the 
Newly Fledged Member ... 17 

III. Colonel Manysnifters — An Out- 

ing WITH THE “Jewels” ... 31 

IV. An Accident — Dinner .... 49 

V. Senator Bull’s Story .... 61 

VI. Representative Holloway Has 

THE Floor 74 

VH. Representative Van Rensselaer 

Unfolds a Strange Tale . . 90 

VHI. Senator Wendell Reads “ The 

Creaking of the Stairs” . . 112 

IX. Senator Hammond’s Experience 128 
X. Mr. Callahan’s Story . . . 142 

XL What Happened to Denmead . 167 

XII. O’Brien’s Narrative . . . . 183 

XHI. An Uninvited Guest .... 194 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Senator Bull and Sammy Ridley Frontispiece ^ 


President Madison 

Senator Pennypacker 

Colonel Ross Addressing the Jury 
“ Stick to the Thirteenth Command- 
ment! ” 

The Kiss 

Manuel Villasante 

Papa Villasante 

“ Upon each stair the clear impression 

OF A NAKED HUMAN FOOT ! ” 

“ Ah Moy, shrieking^ turned and 

fled! ” 

“ Shoved a revolver right up in the 

TEETH OF THE PROSPEROUS ONE ! ” 

“ Writes the dramatic criticisms for 

THE MOVING-PICTURE SHOWS ”... 

“ Framed in the doorway stood one of 

THE FINEST EXAMPLES OF THE EARLY 

Gothic I have ever seen ” . . . . 

Professor Habib 

An Uninvited Guest 


PAGE 


49 




56 

69 




83" 

96 ^ 

105 

106 


122 






181^ 


185^ 

I9I 


The Statesmen Snowbound 

BY ROBERT FITZGERALD 


I 

THE FUNERAL 

Toward the close of the — th Congress I 
was designated a member of a committee on 
the part of the House to accompany the re- 
mains of the late Senator Thurlow to their 
last resting-place at the old home in Kentucky. 
And it might be well to state here that I am 
quite aware that some of my ungrateful 
countrymen apply the spiteful term “junket” 
to a journey of this description. When one 
considers the sacrifices we Congressmen make 
in order to serve the nation, it is hard to be- 
lieve that unthinking persons begrudge us 
a little pleasure. In many cases we give up 
all home life, business interests, and personal 
comfort, and take up our abode in second- 
rate hotels and boarding-houses. We are 
continually pestered and annoyed by office- 
seekers, book-agents, cranks, and reporters; 
and, alas, we form habits that cling like bar- 


10 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


nacles, try as hard 'as we may to shake them 
off. A taste of public life is fatal to most 
men, and the desire to feed from the public 
crib goes right to the bone. It is like a can- 
cer, and it is removed only with grave dan- 
ger to the afflicted. Everything, therefore, 
which may lighten our burdens and tend to 
relieve the situation should be the aim and 
study of our constituents. But this may be 
digression. 

The trip out was necessarily a quiet one, 
though a well-stocked buffet kept the delega- 
tion from absolute depression. Leaving 
Washington early in the afternoon we ar- 
rived at the little Kentucky town the next 
morning about eleven o’clock, and found that 
we had yet some five miles to go over bad 
roads to the homestead. We were met by 
two nephews of the deceased, with a host of 
relatives and friends. The son, Albert Thur- 
low, came on with us from Washington. 
There was ample accommodation in the way 
of conveyances, and we proceeded slowly up 
into the higher country. In something more 
than an hour the house was reached — a big 
home-like structure, large enough for us all, 
and the entertainment most lavish. The estate 
was an extensive one, and the innumerable 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND ii 


outbuildings and well-stocked barns gave evi- 
dence of wealth and thrift. A long drive be- 
tween rows of lofty poplars led to the main 
entrance, and the view from the front of the 
house down to the river was superb. There 
were servants in abundance, and nothing had 
been overlooked to insure our comfort. The 
stables were the attraction for most of our 
party, and several kings of the turf were 
brought out for inspection. We were taken 
all over the place, and many things of inter- 
est were shown us. A Bible and powder- 
horn, once the property of Daniel Boone, 
books with the autograph of Henry Clay, 
duelling pistols, quaint and almost priceless 
silver and china, and a rare collection of old 
prints and family portraits. The walls in 
one room were fairly lined with cups, the 
trophies of many a famous meet. 

And such whiskey! There is nothing like 
it in Washington, or in the whole world, per- 
haps. A volume might be written in praise 
of that mellow, golden fluid. There were 
many in our party who would gladly add to 
this glowing testimony, and wax eloquent 
over the virtues of that noble life-saver and 
panacea, referred to by our good hosts as 
“ a little something.” Accustomed, as most 


12 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


of us were, to the stuff served over the Wash- 
ington bars, this was indeed well worth the 
trip out. 

Late February is not the time to see rural 
Kentucky at its best, and but few signs of 
spring were visible. The day of the funeral 
dawned with leaden skies, and a piercing 
wind from the north groaned in the chimneys, 
and whistled through the leafless trees on 
the lawn. The branches of a huge maple 
scraped and fretted against my windows and 
woke me several times during the night. At 
an early hour a servant was piling high the 
fire, and the room was soon bathed in a cheer- 
ful glow, the logs cracking and sputtering 
merrily. I parted the curtains of my large 
old-fashioned bed, slipped to the floor feel- 
ing very well and fit, and glanced curiously 
about me. Every appointment of the room 
was long out of date, but nevertheless made 
for snugness and comfort. The lover of an- 
tique furniture would surely revel here. I do 
not know what would delight him most; the 
high-post bed, the dressing-table, the chest of 
drawers, or the old clock on the mantel. 
The sheets and hangings smelled faintly of 
lavender, the walls were papered with land- 
scapes in which pretty shepherdesses, impos- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 13 

sible sheep, and garlands of roses predomi- 
nated, — a style much in vogue in the early 
forties, — indeed the room seemed as if it had 
been closed and laid away by a tidy housewife 
years before, and opened and aired for my re- 
ception but yesterday. An illumined text, — 
a “Jonah under his Gourd,” elaborately 
worked in colored silks, — a smirking like- 
ness of “ The Father of his Country,” and an 
equally self-satisfied looking portrait of Mrs. 
W. hung in prominent places. 

There was a gentle tap on the door, and an 
ancient darky entered, with a tall glass of 
whipped-cream punch, light as a feather, and 
as delicate as thought. Then, breakfast, in 
a long, low-ceilinged room on the ground 
floor, with a blazing fire at each end, a pick- 
aninny gravely watchful over both. Only the 
male members of the family were at the meal, 
which was a solemn festival as befitting a 
house of mourning. 

At ten o’clock the funeral procession left 
the mansion and slowly wound its way along 
a rough road to a little weather-beaten church 
a mile or so distant. It was set well back 
from the highway in the shadow of tall pines, 
and looked lonely and uncared-for. In the 
churchyard were a few scattered tombstones. 


14 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

moss-grown, and very much awry. The 
graves were unkempt and sunken, and weeds 
and poison ivy struggled for the mastery. 
The day was bitterly cold, with an occasional 
flurry of snow; but, in spite of that, an im- 
mense crowd had gathered. The church and 
churchyard were filled to overflowing. It 
was the largest collection of queer looking 
people, horses, and “fixes” I have ever seen. 
The services were brief, but most impressive, 
and it must have been a trying ordeal for the 
aged clergyman, an old friend of the de- 
ceased. Several times his voice faltered, and 
he seemed about to break down. The coffin 
was borne to the grave by six stalwart ne- 
groes, laborers on the estate. A lad fol- 
lowed, leading poor Thurlow’s favorite horse. 
Then the widow and her son, the relatives, 
friends, and family servants. A fine male 
quartet sang “Nearer, my God, to Thee,” 
and a soul-stirring contralto, “Asleep in Je- 
sus.” Tears stood in the eyes of all, the ne- 
groes weeping openly and uncontrollably. As 
the grave was filled in, the snow began to fall 
in real earnest, gusts of wind lashing the 
pines into fury. It was the beginning of a 
three days’ blizzard long to be remembered 
in that country. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 15 

Returning to the warmth and comfort of 
the homestead, we found a vast array of eat- 
ables and drinkables ; every one was wel- 
comed, but notwithstanding the unusual 
number of guests, all was well-ordered and 
decorous. The Thurlows and their numer- 
ous clan are a fine-looking folk; the men, 
sturdy, well set-up — a fighting people, yet 
generous, kindly and hospitable. The wo- 
men — gracious, lovely, and altogether charm- 
ing. Beyond the universally cherished idea 
of beautiful women, blooded horses, and 
blue grass, my knowledge of Kentucky had 
been rather vague. My information had 
been derived chiefly from my experience on 
various Election Committees, where moon- 
shiners, mountain feuds, and double-barrelled 
shot guns played prominent parts. Com- 
monwealths, like communities, are advertised 
most widely by the evils in their midst ; a fact 
which jolts the reformer and drives the opti- 
mist to drink. The lordly manner of living, 
the immense estates, and the magnificent hos- 
pitality of our hosts, was a revelation to me; 
and an occasional reference by one of the 
older servants to the grandeur of ante-bel- 
lum days indicated a condition of even greater 
splendor and luxury. But the cruel hand of 


i6 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


war had devastated and impoverished the 
country, the slaves were freed, and the land 
for years lay untilled and neglected. Marse 
Henry, the head of the house, was killed in 
almost the first battle of the war. Marse 
Breckinridge died, a prisoner in Fort War- 
ren, and now Marse Preston had followed 
them to the land of shadows. Uncle Eph’m, 
himself, was getting very feeble and helpless, 
and it would not be long before he joined his 
loved ones on the other shore. De good ole 
times were gone forever! 

It was with regret that I left this attract- 
ive home, and I gladly accepted an invita- 
tion to return in the fall for the shooting. 
For the shooting, indeed I Why, that was all 
over! Dan Cupid never aimed truer! My 
wife — a Kentuckian — says that I will never 
shine as a Nimrod, but it seems to me that I 
have had pretty fair success in that role. 


II 


SENATOR BULL AND MR. RIDLEY TRIALS 

AND TRIBULATIONS OF THE NEWLY 
FLEDGED MEMBER. 

Again on the train, our troubles were over, 
and we pulled out of the station amid cheers 
and yells from hundreds of throats — an odd 
contrast to the mournful silence of the throng 
upon our arrival. 

In our party were Senators Baker, of Ken- 
tucky; Bull, of Montana; Wendell, of Massa- 
chusetts; Hammond, of Michigan; Penny- 
packer, of West Virginia; and Congressmen 
Holloway, of Illinois; Manysnifters, of 
Georgia; Van Rensselaer, of New York; a 
majority of the Kentucky delegation, Mr. 
Ridley, Senator Bull’s private secretary, and 
several newspaper men. 

Senator Bull is seventy, tall and massive. 
His features are striking — a big nose, heavy, 
grizzled mustache, bushy brows emphasiz- 
ing eyes blue and kindly, a wide mouth, to- 
bacco-stained, with a constant movement of 
the jaws — bovine, but shrewdly ruminative. 
17 


1 8 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


A leonine head of shaggy white hair crowns 
the whole. Ridley, the private secretary, is 
about the same age. He is a ruddy-cheeked, 
round-paunched little fellow, scarcely measur- 
ing up to the Senator’s shoulder. The thin 
fringe of hair around his shining pate gives 
him the appearance of a jolly friar. He peers 
at you through gold-rimmed spectacles, and 
is quite helpless without them. He has been 
with Senator Bull for years, serving him 
faithfully in various capacities, and is now a 
partner in the enterprises which have made 
the Senator many times a millionaire. The 
title of “ private secretary ” is one of courtesy 
merely, and seems to highly amuse the two 
friends. 

At nightfall we had left the storm behind 
us, and were speeding over the mountains. 
The sunlight, lingering on the higher peaks, 
cast great shadows into the depths beyond. 
There had been much snow all winter, and 
the summits sparkled and shone out daz- 
zlingly, then went pink and crimson and pur- 
ple as the radiance slowly faded. The lamps 
had not been lighted in the car, and most of 
us had gathered at the observation end, im- 
pressed by the grandeur of it all, when the 
silence was broken by Mr. Ridley. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 19 

“ That’s a pretty sight, sure ! It gives me 
a kind of solemn feeling all over. The glory 
up there makes me think of dying, and 
heaven, and angels, and all that,” he said 
gravely. “ That patch of light calls to mind 
the fellows I know who climb the heights, 
and when they get near the top the sunshine 
of prosperity, or fame, or notoriety, or what- 
ever you call it, strikes them and it wilts 
them, and they can’t stand it for long, so 
they fall back, and you don’t hear of them 
any more. There ’re others, though, who get 
up there and fairly bask in it all, walk around, 
lie down, eat and sleep in it. They can stand 
it, and, my, what big shadows they throw ! ” 

“Well, well, well, Sammy Ridley, I never 
heard you talk like that before,” said Sena- 
tor Bull; “ it must have been that funeral to- 
day. Got on your nerves, eh? Some folks 
are affected like that. Come away from that 
window, boy, and get back to earth again.” 
Thus urged, Mr. Ridley got back to earth 
again, and took a drink of generous size. 
Several of the delegation joined him. The 
movement seemed a popular one. 

The conversation then turned to the de- 
ceased, his many good qualities, his probable 
successor in the Senate, and the bearing his 


20 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


death would have upon the political situation 
in Kentucky. 

“We will miss him in the Senate,” said 
Senator Wendell; “we will miss his wise 
counsel, the broad statesmanlike views, and 
the kindly personality that endeared him to 
us all. Thurlow was a great man, and the 
State of Kentucky will no doubt erect a fit- 
ting memorial.” 

“Yes,” said Mr. Ridley, “I suppose they 
will. They ought to. It may be some con- 
solation to the family anyhow. But it is 
an empty sort of thing, after all, when you 
come to think of it. A man’s life and actions 
are his best monument; those who loved him 
will never forget him, his enemies will be 
sorry they spoke, and there will be something 
more than appropriate cut on his tombstone 
— that’s certainly all a man should want. 
What’s the use of waiting for a fellow to die 
before immortalizing him in marble or 
bronze? It is small satisfaction to him per- 
sonally. Why not put up a statue while he 
is living, and let him have the pleasure of 
walking past it with his wife and children 
on a fine Sunday afternoon when all the folks 
are out? ” 

“ There is a rich vein of truth in what you 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 21 


say, Sammy,” said Senator Bull; “but you 
are alive and well, and it is almost impossible 
for you to take a dead man’s view of the sit- 
uation.” 

“ I don’t know but what you are right. 
Senator,” observed Mr. Ridley thoughtfully, 
and the group relapsed into silence. 

“ You are a Southern man, I believe, Mr. 
Ridley,” said Representative Van Rensselaer 
a few minutes later, as they touched glasses. 

“ I was one, sir, very much of one ; that’s 
why I am limping around now. I was in the 
Confederate Army up to the fall of sixty- 
three, and then I was taken prisoner.” 

“ So you have had a taste of Union prisons, 
eh?” asked Senator Baker, who spoke feel- 
ingly — his “ Recollections of Johnson’s 
Island” had just made its appearance. 

“Just a leetle might of a taste. Senator; 
nothing like your experience, though. You 
see, it was this way with me. I was cap- 
tured by a pretty good sort of a fellow^ — a 
big, husky, soft-hearted chap who wouldn’t 
hurt a flea. That’s him over there,” point- 
ing to Senator Bull, “ and he has held me 
prisoner ever since. He ran up against me 
at Chickamauga.” 

“Well?” said Senator Baker expectantly. 


22 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


“Tell them the whole story, Sammy,” 
said Senator Bull, as several of the party 
drew their chairs up closer to the private 
secretary; “tell them the whole story; it 
will kill time, anyway.” 

“Yes,” continued Mr. Ridley, “I was 
taken prisoner, and it all came of my fool- 
ishness and scorn for the enemy. We boys of 
the — th Arkansas thought any Johnny Reb 
could whip five Yanks, and it made us kind 
of careless-like, I reckon. I was a raw coun- 
try lad when the war broke out, as tough a 
specimen as ever Jefferson County turned 
loose on the unsuspecting public, but I wasn’t 
much worse than the rest of the boys who 
loafed around Todd’s livery stable swapping 
lies, chawing tobacco, and setting the nation 
to rights. We were all full of fight when the 
Sumter news came, and anxious to get in it; 
and I saw a heap of it, too, before I made 
the acquaintance of Nathan Bull. 

“There was some lively skirmishing on 
the morning of September twentieth, sixty- 
three, before the armies got together in ear- 
nest. It was real comical to see the boys tear- 
ing up their love-letters and playing-cards 
just before going into battle. The roads and 
fields were speckled with the scraps just like 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 23 

a snowfall on the stage, as I reckon all of 
you have seen in plays like ‘Alone in Lon- 
don,’ and the ‘ Banker’s Daughter.’ It was 
in one of those preliminary set-tos that 
somehow my company strayed away, and left 
me up in the woods with a bullet in my leg. 
I was looking around for some place where 
I could lie down and nurse myself a bit, and 
at the same time keep clear of the shells and 
other things flying around. The air was full 
of them — making a noise like ‘ Whar-izz- 
yer?’ ‘ Whar-izz-yer ? ’ Haven’t you often 
heard that sound. Senator? Some poor devil 
hears it once too often, every now and then, 
doesn’t he? 

“ It was very hot and dusty, and I was 
plumb crazy for water. Somehow I man- 
aged to work my way out to a big clear space 
on the side of the hill. The brush and weeds 
were up to your neck. At the foot of the hill 
was a piece of marshy land where there had 
once been a spring. It had long since dried 
up, but there were patches of greenish water 
here and there. I threw myself on the ground, 
and my, how good that nasty-looking water 
tasted! Then I bathed my face and hands 
in it. I heard a man over to my right shout 
out that General Hood had been killed; and 


24 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

in a minute or so two of our officers dashed 
out of the timber, coming my way, riding for 
dear life, and nearly trampling me. Mean- 
while, the battle seemed to be raging all 
around me. Most of the heavy fighting that 
day was done in the woods, and the losses 
were big on both sides. Well, I dragged 
myself to a little clump of sassafras, not car- 
ing much whether I lived or died, I was that 
played out, and my leg burning and stinging 
just as though it was being touched up with 
a red-hot poker. I had been there about 
fifteen minutes when a blue-coat rose up in 
front of me — right out of the ground it 
seemed — and says, very fierce, ‘You’re my 
prisoner ! ’ He was a young fellow, about 
my age, and didn’t look at all dangerous. I 
just wished that leg of mine had been all 
right, I would have given him his money’s 
worth, I tell you ! But it wasn’t any use. I 
couldn’t stir for the misery. 

“‘You’re my prisoner,’ he says again, 
louder’n before. 

“ ‘ All right,’ says I, ‘ I’m willing,’ seeing 
there wasn’t anything else to say, and putting 
a free and easy face on it. 

“ ‘ Get up, then, and come along with me,’ 
says he. I pointed to my leg, and tried to 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 25 

grin. He saw the curious way it was lying — 
all twisted up — and the big red splotch on 
my trousers, and says, as if imparting in- 
formation, ‘You’re hurt, man, badly hurt. 
Keep perfectly still,’ which seemed to be un- 
necessary, as that was the onliest thing I could 
do anyhow. ‘ I’ll get you out of this. Now, 
brace up,’ and he knelt down, and held out 
his canteen. I tried to take it, but the effort 
was too much for me. ‘ Poor chap, he’s 
gone,’ I heard him say, and then I faded 
away. When I came to — a minute later it 
seemed to me — I was in a Yankee hospital; 
a big tent full of men groaning and dying, 
and doctors running this way and that with 
bottles, and bandages, and knives; and the 
cussing, and the screaming, and the smells ! 
It makes me sick to think of it, even now. 
It was hell ! I know you don’t want to hear 
about the time I spent there, and in another 
place like it, tossing and groaning through the 
long days and nights ; and when I got nearly 
well again, about my life in prison, and my 
parole. Nathan fixed that, and I walked out 
a free man, limping a little, just as I’ve done 
ever since. Nathan hadn’t forgotten the 
Reb he had taken prisoner, and when I went 
back to Pine Bluff, poorer’n a rat, and no 


26 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


prospects to speak of, he gave me my start in 
life. He sent me with a letter to his folks 
in Illinois, and when I got there they gave 
me work to do, and treated me like one of 
their own. They certainly were white to me. 
When Nathan came home after the war, he 
cal’lated that Illinois was too far east for 
him, so after a few years we packed up our 
duds, and ’migrated out to Montana. There 
we’ve been ever since. That’s my story, and 
it ain’t a very startling one after all, is it? ” 

“And it is true — every word of it,” said 
Senator Bull warmly. “ Sammy has stuck 
by me through thick and thin. I don’t be- 
lieve I could have made out without him. As 
a mine boss, store keeper, deputy sheriff, and 
Indian fighter, we swear by him out our way. 
There is a fellow, gentlemen, who calls a 
spade a spade, and oftener than not a damned 
spade ! ” 

“ Don’t take my character away, Nathan,” 
expostulated Mr. Ridley humbly; “give me 
a show. I’m an old man now, and all I’ve 
got left is my good name, and a little some- 
thing in the savings bank. Don’t be hard on 
me.” 

“ Sammy,” continued the Senator, unnotic- 
ing, “ could have gone to Congress if he had 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 27 

cared to. The Democrats were after him 
only year before last. Their man won out 
hands down. Sammy declined the nomina- 
tion. And that’s the only thing I have 
against Sammy Ridley. He is a Democrat. 
It’s born in him, just as some folks inherit a 
taste for liquor, and others come into the 
world plumb crazy, and are satisfied to stay 
that way all their lives. However, it is not 
as bad as it seems. They do say out in our 
country that the firm of ‘ Bull and Ridley ’ 
is bound to get there, because when the Re- 
publican party is in the saddle, and there’s 
anything to be had, it’s ‘ Bull and Ridley,’ 
and when the Democrats are on top, it’s 
‘ Ridley and Bull,’ and when the Populists 
come in we are going out of business. So 
there may be some truth in it after all. What 
say you, Sammy boy?” Mr. Ridley 
nodded gravely. “ In Washington Sammy is 
invited everywhere, but society is not his 
strong point. He won’t get in the swim.” 

“ I’d rather not be ‘ in the swim ’ than 
swim in dirty water,” said the private sec- 
retary brusquely. “ But speaking of the Sen- 
ator; there, friends, is certainly an all-around 
heavy-weight.” 

“ Sammy, Sammy,” said the Senator re- 


28 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


proachfully. “ I see you are getting back at 
me. I didn’t think it of you. No bouquets, 
if you please. As a matter of fact, gentle- 
men, I feel that I am growing beautifully 
less every day; I have noticed it ever since I 
came to Washington. I haven’t been in the 
Senate long enough to amount to anything, 
if I ever do. We new people are only in 
demand when there is a vote to be taken. We 
are put on minor committees, and are thank- 
ful for any crumbs that fall from the great 
man’s table. I am a very small spar in the 
ship of state. It takes all the conceit out of 
a fellow when he finds how little he amounts 
to in Washington. He leaves his own part 
of the world a giant, puffed up with pride 
and importance; but the shrinking process 
begins as soon as the train rolls out of the 
home depot. It comes on like an attack of 
the ague — you are first hot, then cold, then 
colder still. You shiver and shake ” 

“ For drinks? ” murmured one of the news- 
paper men absently. 

“Well — yes,” replied the Senator, smiling. 
“ I hadn’t thought of that. Very neatly put. 
Quite true. And, as I say, he shivers and 
shakes — for drinks — loses, and loses — pays 
for them, and by the time he reaches Wash- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 29 

ington he and his pocket-book are several 
sizes below normal.” 

The humble attitude of this, one of Amer- 
ica’s wealthiest and most influential men, was 
edifying but scarcely convincing. The news- 
paper men looked at one another dubiously. 
Perhaps, they thought, when the Senator’s 
magnificent house in the West End was com- 
pleted, and his wife and daughters came over 
from Paris, the poor fellow would not be so 
lonely and neglected. He was a fine man, 
and it seemed too bad that he should be so 
side-tracked. 

“ Quite true. Senator,” agreed Representa- 
tive Holloway, “ and matters are even worse 
in the House. There are more of us there, 
and the mere individual is more dwarf-like 
than over in the Senate. We are treated 
like a lot of naughty school-boys, and when 
we meekly beg leave ‘ to speak out in meetin’ ’ 
we are practically told to shut up and sit 
down. The new comer is the victim of much 
quiet hazing on the part of his colleagues, — 
ably aided and abetted by the Speaker, — but 
he soon learns the ropes, and quickly effaces 
himself. He reserves his babble for the 
cloak-room and hotel lobby; yet, to many of 
his constituents, he is still a great man. There 


30 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


is no sadder sight in the world than the 
newly-fledged Congressman in the throes of 
his maiden speech, delivered to a half-filled 
House, busily reading the papers, talking, 
writing, or absorbed in thought. An official 
stenographer, right under his nose, wearily 
jots down the effort, and the real audience 
consists of a few bored friends in the gal- 
leries who sniile uneasily now and then, and 
wonder what it is all about, and how long 
the blamed thing is going to last. Anyway, 
he gets it in the Record for free distribution 
to thousands of constituents, who read it, per- 
haps, and try to imagine why ‘ Applause ’ is 
tagged on to the finish.” 

“ A gloomy picture, but not overdrawn,” 
sighed one of the Kentucky delegation. 
Here’s looking at you, Holloway,” he added, 
more cheerfully, ‘‘here’s looking at you.” 


Ill 


COLONEL MANYSNIFTERS AN OUTING WITH 

THE ''jewels'^ 

Colonel Manysnifters, who had been 
quietly smoking a little apart from the group, 
now drew up and joined us. He had been 
imbibing rather freely since we left the sta- 
tion, but with the exception of a somewhat 
suspicious silence, had shown no further ef- 
fects of his efforts in behalf of the Whiskey 
Trust. The Colonel’s resemblance to Uncle 
Sam (as popularly portrayed) was so strik- 
ing that children taken to the Capitol for the 
first time would shout with glee when he was 
pointed out to them. Rural visitors went 
home satisfied that the country was safe — 
they had seen Uncle Sam on hand, sober, 
and ‘ tending to business ! ’ A friend once 
said to him, “ Manysnifters, you look so 
much like Uncle Sam that whenever I see 
you on a jag I feel like this great nation of 
ours is going to hell ! ” 

Georgia is the Colonel’s native State, and 


31 


32 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

he is proud of it, but I imagine that some re- 
cent legislation down there has greatly upset 
him. He looked rather downcast when I last 
saw him, and refused nourishment either in 
solid or liquid form. And then he said, 
eyeing me solemnly, “ ‘ Times is right porely 
down our way, boss. Things don’t lap. De 
chinquapin crap done gin out ’fore de ’sim- 
mons is ripe! ’ Now, boy, don’t ask me how 
things are going in my State. You know as 
much about it as I do. Let the old man 
alone, won’t you?” and so I left him. 

“Well, Colonel, how do you feel now?” 
asked Senator Bull solicitously. 

“ Oh, I’m all right,” replied the Colonel, 
suspicion lurking in his tones. “ I know what 
you think. Senator, but I am not. No, siree 1 
I have had three or four small ones, but I am 
not ‘ lit ’ by a jugful 1 The idea ! Drunk 
on four high-balls! Why, they just clear my 
brain — drive the fog out. Maybe it’s the 
Scotch, maybe the soda. A fine combination, 
the high-ball. I am as stupid as an owl when 
I am cold sober, but when I drink, I soar ! I 
feel like a lark with nothing between myself 
and the sun except a little fresh air and ex- 
ercise. Oh, there’s nothing the matter with 
me; any one can see that. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 33 

“ It’s funny how small this world is, and 
how time flies. I supposed you all noticed the 
tall, bald-headed man with the spectacles 
who ran up and hugged me to-day. Ain’t he 
the ugly one ? His ma certainly did hand his 
pa a lemon when he was born. Why, if I 
had been a long-lost brother he could not 
have been gladder to see me. Well, I was 
glad to see him, too, but the sight of him 
called up memories at once humiliating and 
smile-provoking. Senator, may I trouble you 
to depress the business end of that syphon? 
Thank you. Now, that fellow’s name is Sey- 
mour — that’s why he wears specs, I suppose 
— and he rattles around in the chair of Ap- 
plied Science at Jay College, this State. Not 
much of an institution, and still less of a job, 
I imagine, and poor Seymour’s salary quite 
in keeping. If there ever was any one de- 
serving a Carnegie medal, Seymour is the 
chap. He studied medicine once, and grad- 
uated high up, but he never practised his pro- 
fession! That’s saving lives for you. Can 
you beat it? 

“ Well, Harry was a protege, or something 
of the sort, of our late friend Thurlow. And, 
as I said, I beheld his honest, glowing counte- 
nance with mixed feelings. But it is a long 


34 the statesmen snowbound 

story — a long story ” and the Colonel 

paused as if seeking encouragement to pro- 
ceed. 

It was forthcoming. 

“We would like very much to hear it,” 
said Senator Wendell gravely; “that is, of 
course, if it involves no sacrifice of your feel- 
ings. We are all friends here, and will go 
at once into executive session. Let all who 
have a story to tell, an anecdote to relate, or 
a joke to perpetrate, feel free to do so. The 
galleries shall he cleared, and reporters and 
the public excluded — metaphorically speak- 
ing,” he added hastily, turning to the news- 
paper men, who wore a pained expression, 
“ metaphorically speaking, of course.” The 
skies journalistic cleared at once, and then 
Colonel Many snifters, a born diplomat, whis- 
pered to the waiting porter, who nodded 
knowingly, and disappeared. 

“Senator, I thank you. You relieve the sit- 
uation. I am a modest man, sir, and hesi- 
tate to talk about myself even among friends ; 
but since you all insist, there is nothing for 
me to do but yield as gracefully as I may — 
and as a yielder I glitter in the front rank. 
My experience, gentlemen, was a peculiar 
one, and I think it will hold you for a while. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 35 

“ It was during that never-to-be-forgotten 
session of Congress which lasted almost up 
to the time for getting together again. Cleve- 
land was on the thro — in the White House, 
I mean — and I was looking after things up 
at the big building on Capitol Hill. 

“ One day in the latter part of June, when 
the sun was firing up for a real old-fashioned 
Washington summer, and the thermometer 
about four degrees below Jackson City, a 
number of my constituents came on to see 
me, and after we had transacted certain im- 
portant business I undertook to show the boys 
the town; and in the party was this fellow. 
Professor Seymour. 

“ We started out one broiling afternoon 
upon our giddy round of pleasure, and, after 
keeping up the festivities all night and a por- 
tion of the next day, I became separated from 
my friends in some unaccountable way, and 
toward evening found myself wandering 
down town near the wharves. It was very 
dusty and close, and the temperature a slice 
of Hades served up on a hot plate. There was 
no need for matches, all you had to do was to 
put your unlighted cigar in your mouth and 
puff away. I was trying hard to remember 
why I had on glasses, — they were of no use 


36 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


in the world to me, — and I was also much 
astonished to find that I was wearing Sey- 
mour’s coat and hat, the latter a typical west- 
ern slouch, broad-brimmed and generous. I 
also sported a tie loud enough to frighten an 
automobile. After pondering awhile upon 
this remarkable state of affairs, the thought 
arose so far as I knew I might be Seymour 
myself! I was strangely befuddled by the 
adventures of the past twenty-four hours, 
and it was not long before I began to seri- 
ously argue with myself that I was Seymour, 
— undoubtedly Seymour, — indeed, why should 
I not be Seymour as well as any one else? 
This masterly line of reason settled it. I was 
Seymour, and as an instructor and guide of 
youth I felt that I ought to be thoroughly 
ashamed of myself for flocking with the dis- 
sipated crowd I had just left. Acting upon 
this elevating thought, I braced up consider- 
ably, assumed an air of virtue, and not know- 
ing exactly what to do next, joined a throng 
of people who were jostling one another in 
their efforts to get on a steamboat. A sail, 
I fancied, would do me no end of good, and 
as the ticket seller assured me with a smile 
that the boat was perfectly safe and would 
return in a few hours, I went aboard with 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 37 

the rest of the fools, children, and old folks. 
This I accomplished after barely escaping 
a plunge into the river from what struck me 
as being an exceedingly narrow gang-plank. 

“ The band struck up one of Sousa’s lively 
marches, a hoarse whistle sounded, the boat 
trembled all over, and we were off. As the 
Charles Auchester glided out into the stream, 
two young women with camp stools in their 
hands pushed through the crowd at the en- 
trance to the hurricane deck — an elevation I 
had succeeded in attaining — and took their 
seats near a life-raft upon which I reclined, 
Cleopatra-like. 

“ ‘ Oh, aren’t these excursions perfectly 
lovely. Ruby?’ said the taller of the pair, 
taking off her hat and dropping it in her lap. 

“ ‘Yes, and so cheap. All the way to In- 
dian Head and back for a quarter. It’s a 
godsend for us poor tired folks who have to 
stay in town all summer. And you know what 
that means, don’t you. Pearl?’ 

“ ‘ Oh, yes, but don’t let’s talk about it,’ 
said the other fretfully; ‘ I try not even to 
think of what we will have to go through. 
What good does it do to fuss over things we 
can’t help?’ 

“ ‘That’s right, dear,’ said her companion. 


38 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


‘ and it doesn’t pay to look far ahead, either, 
if one wants to be happy. I never do.’ 

“ They were pretty and quite well dressed, 
these two maidens. As to their being without 
a male escort, I rather admired their sturdy 
independence. Everything about th^m be- 
spoke refinement, and yet the very next re- 
mark from the girl called Ruby sent a shiver 
through my sensitive frame, and caused my 
hastily formed but favorable opinion of the 
pair to change color. 

“ ‘ I’d give anything. Pearl, if Will and the 
other fellows were here. They always buy, 
and I’ve got an awful thirst on me.’ 

“‘We might have some beer, anyway,’ 
mildly suggested Pearl, and a flying waiter 
took the order. 

“ ‘ I guess we can pick up something on the 
boat,’ remarked Ruby; who, by the way, was 
good to look at — a black-eyed lass with regu- 
lar features and lots of pink and white com- 
plexion. Pearl, languidly sipping her beer, 
nodded in the affirmative. This person, evi- 
dently the younger of the two, had a babyish 
face, big innocent blue eyes, and a profusion 
of fluffy yellow hair. She did not appeal as 
much to my sense of the beautiful as the dark 
one did; but I have always been partial to 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 39 

brunettes. She told me later that she was 
twenty — which figure was enough for me to 
know, I suppose. Oh, I understand women. 
They are an open book to me. 

“ About eight o’clock the moon, immense 
and crimson, came up from behind the Mary- 
land hills, and cast a lurid path upon the 
wavelets. The girls, or rather the ‘ Jewels,’ 
as I have since learned to think of them, hud- 
dled closer together, with a not too capacious 
shawl around them, for the wind was fresh- 
ening considerably. For a while I stopped 
looking at them, being interested in the little 
stunts that are done on the boat as it passes 
Mount Vernon. The tolling of the bell and 
the dirge by the band absorbed all my atten- 
tion. 

“ It was not long, though, before I began 
to feel that I was the object of very earnest 
scrutiny on the part of an individual or in- 
dividuals nearby. Turning suddenly, I met 
the basilisk gaze of Pearl and Ruby. Their 
dreadful remark came to me with crushing 
force. They had begun, as they coarsely put 
it, ‘ to pick up something.’ Lobster-like, 
finding myself in hot water, I turned sev- 
eral beautiful shades of red immediately. I 
became terror-stricken — I, the dignified Pro- 


40 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

fessor of Applied Science at Jay College, 
Kentucky! All my innate modesty began to 
assert itself; and is not this the surest protec- 
tion of the innocent? I arose and fled. 

“ Unfortunately, while retreating, I looked 
back, simply to see how the shameless crea- 
tures were affected by my departure. Oh, 
fatal curiosity! They must have considered 
my backward glance an invitation to follow, 
for they did so with alacrity. That accursed 
backward glance ! Lot’s wife — you know the 
story. 

“ However, I saw that I was in for it, so 
just before reaching the steps leading to the 
bar, I resolutely faced my pursuers and stood 
at bay. They bore down upon me like ships 
that pass — no, I won’t say that. 

“‘You sweet thing,’ chirped Ruby, ‘it 
knew how thirsty we were, didn’t it ? I don’t 
care if it isn’t the youngest baby at the chris- 
tening, it’s just all skeeky; so there!’ This 
speech was delivered in gentle tones, but loud 
enough to be heard by several bystanders, 
who snickered disagreeably. 

“‘Yes, popper,’ joined in Pearl warmly, 
‘ do buy us a drink.’ 

“‘Yes, popper!’ I could have slapped 
her ! Heavens ! Did I look as old as that ? 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 41 

I was aghast, for I have always prided my- 
self upon my youthful appearance. 

“ ‘ If you call me “ popper ” again,’ said 
I in a savage undertone, ‘ I will throw you 
overboard! Do you hear? How dare you 
speak to me anyway? I have a great mind to 
call an officer! Come now, girls,’ I added 
in a milder strain, aware of the helplessness 
of the situation, ‘let’s go below; and keep 
quiet, do. I will buy the drinks.’ 

“ Then in sheer self-defense I ordered beer, 
then more beer, then cocktails, then I don’t 
know what — Pearl asked the waiter to bring 
it — a queer greenish-yellow stuff which quickly 
overpowered me. When the vile mixture had 
gotten in its handiwork the Jewels seemed 
highly satisfied, and laughed gleefully. A 
few moments later I was introduced to a 
‘ gentleman friend ’ of theirs whom they 
fished out of the crowd. He was a flashily 
dressed youth who insisted upon another 
drink — and another — at my expense. After 
that I have a faint recollection of getting off 
the boat upon its return to Washington, and 
of being hustled into a night-liner, the Jewels 
and their pal nobly standing by me. We 
jogged along for miles. Ruby singing at the 
top of her voice and the gentleman friend 


42 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

joining in at the chorus. Pearl’s head was 
bent over, wobbly fashion. She was either 
asleep, or lost in deep thought. I have also 
a dim recollection of the vehicle coming to 
an abrupt halt, and a head thrust in at the 
window, saying pointedly that if we did not 
make less noise he would run the whole 
blanketty-blank gang in. This made me mad, 
and I wanted to fight the stranger then and 
there ; but my warlike purpose was frustrated 
by the Jewels and their friend, who flung 
themselves upon me, wisely detaining me. 
The end of our journey was reached soon 
afterwards and our little party rolled out. 

“ I was then dragged up an apparently 
endless flight of steps, and into the vestibule 
of a large old-fashioned house, once the 
stately residence of a famous man, but now 
given over to the undesirable class of persons 
into whose clutches I had fallen. An aged 
negress tugged at an immense paneled door, 
and let us into a wide hall, at the end of 
which a lamp burned feebly. Then we strug- 
gled up more stairs, and after many turnings 
drew up before a shabbily furnished room. 
Into this I was rudely pushed, and the door 
closed and locked upon me. I rocked about 
in the darkness, grabbed the bed as it swung 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 43 

around for the third time, got a strangle 
hold, and went right to sleep. From this I 
was awakened some hours later by voices in 
the hall just outside. The transom over the 
door was open, so I could hear pretty well 
all that was said. 

“ ‘ That’s a good sort of haul you made 
to-night — nit ! ’ growled a deep bass. ‘ Ain’t 
you afraid you’ll get into trouble? That fel- 
low in there is Colonel Manysnifters. You’ve 
all heard of him — haven’t yer? Why, he is 
the biggest man in the House — a great swell 
— money to throw at the birds ; and he’s been 
a throwin’ it, hey? ’ said he of the voice, with 
a chuckle ; ‘ but he ain’t no greenhorn, I can 
tell yer ! The old sport can make it powerful 
warm for us when he gets out of here ! ’ 

“ ‘ Suppose he never gets out — not for a 
long time, anyway; and the ransom — just 
think of the ransom ! ’ joyously urged one of 
the Jewels, whose voice I recognized. 

“ ‘ Oh, that sorter thing don’t go now,’ 
said the man ; ‘ besides, the cop who stopped 
yer awhile ago knows a thing or two. You 
can’t work any Turkish brigand racket here 
in Washington — the town’s too small. Could 
do it in New York, I suppose, but not down 
here. The game ain’t worth the candle. 


44 the statesmen snowbound 

anyhow. The chap’s blown in all he had 
about him. We’ve got his scarfpin and 
alarm clock, and that’s all there is to it.’ 

“ ‘ r guess you’re right,’ remarked the 
Jewel; ‘but wait until Lola comes, and see 
what she says.’ 

“ ‘ So they think I am old Manysnifters,’ 
thought I, trying to smile. ‘ That’s real 
funny, ain’t it? Oh, if he were only here 
now, wouldn’t he get me out of this ? ’ And 
in my fancy I could see my husky friend 
grappling with the gang outside, pitching 
them down the stairs, and carrying me off in 
triumph — the way they do it in the best 
sellers. My captors then went below, their 
voices trailing away into silence. They left 
me with some nasty thoughts. 

“ ‘ What would the faculty of Jay think 
of their Seymour, could they but gaze upon 
him now? What would my pupils say? The 
World, the great World at large, the Press, 
the Pulpit?’ (My brother is an Atlanta 
clergyman.) ‘ What would these great social 
forces say?’ Confused ideas of my identity 
and importance arose like fumes to further 
befuddle me. I sat on the side, and in the 
middle of the bed, in despair — longing for 
something to smoke! 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 45 

“The hours dragged slowly by, and yet 
Lola, Lola the mysterious, upon whose deci- 
sion so much depended, came not. 

“ Something must be done, and quickly,” 
thought I, and I started to get up. But hark! 
I heard some one in the hall softly slip a key 
in the lock of my door, and turn it with a 
creaking sound. The next moment a very 
odd figure came into the room. ’Twas a little 
old woman, and as she glided toward me I 
sank back on the couch quivering with ter- 
ror 1 On, on, she came, and lightly touched 
my forehead. 

“ My first impulse was to shriek with 
affright; the impulse was all right, but I just 
couldn’t do it. I must have been paralyzed. 
I blew first hot and then cold, and then 
stopped blowing altogether. 

“So there I lay, stark with fear. But my 
visitor seemed to be very harmless. She drew 
up a chair by the side of the bed and took her 
seat, muttering something I couldn’t catch. 
Then she bent over me and I felt her warm 
breath on my cheek! 

“The situation had changed but slightly 
when I came to a little later. She was talk- 
ing. 

“ ‘ Marse Edwin, Marse Edwin, don’t yer 


46 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

know yer ole black mammy? Hush-sh-sh, 
chile, doan’ answer me, ’cept in a whisper I 
I’se done come fer to save yer! I nussed 
yer when yer was a little baby, and I prom- 
ised ole Missus always to look arter yer. De 
sojers is a huntin’ fer yer, Marse Edwin; 
dey’s all eround us 1 Hush-sh-sh ! ’ said she, 
as I attempted to rise; ‘lie still, honey, dey’ll 
sartainly cotch yer if yer goes out now 1 Dey’s 
sentinils posted everywhar, and dey’ll shoot 
you down like a dog! My poor Marse Ed- 
win,’ she wailed, ‘why did yer do it? Why 
did yer do it? Why did yer kill him? He 
nebber done yer no harm. Why, Gawd bless 
him, he done sot ole Mammy free ! But dar 
ain’t no use talkin’ ’bout it now ! ’ She walked 
up and down the room several times, still 
muttering, and then peered out of the win- 
dow. Something in the street attracted her. 

“ ‘ Hush-sh-sh, chile, now’s de time ! Git 
up quick, deary, but fer de Lawd’s sake doan’ 
make no noise ! Follow de ole woman — dis 
way.’ I got up at once and obeyed her. It 
was a ghastly sort of thing, this Marse Ed- 
win business, but I saw a chance of escape at 
the bottom of it. We went to the lower part 
of the house on tip-toe, and the negress, open- 
ing the street door, pushed me out into the 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 47 

cool dawn, saying with a shaking voice, ‘ Run, 
Marse Edwin, run fer yer life! Watch out 
for de sojers! Good-bye, Gawd bress you, 
my lam’ I ’ And I ran, you bet. 

“ Day was breaking when I found myself 
in the street, and as I emerged from the 
slightly disreputable neighborhood where I 
had passed the night I felt sure that a glance 
in the mirror would show me up a haggard, 
white-haired wreck. The air was wonderfully 
reviving, though, and I felt a subtle change 
stealing over me. An odd, pricking sensa- 
tion, like one’s foot awakening from sleep, 
gradually took possession of me, and to my 
horror I appeared to be separating from 
myself. Any one who has had that feeling 
knows what it is. At one moment I was the 
Professor ; the next, I was undoubtedly 
Manysnifters 1 I found myself walking by 
the side of one; then, in the twinkling of an 
eye, with the other. It was not long, how- 
ever, before I began to get tired of it, so just 
before I reached the hotel I determined to 
decide once for all who I was. I felt that it 
was important I should know. The decision 
was arrived at by a simple expedient to which 
I invariably resort whenever I find my judg- 
ment wavering. There is no patent on the 


48 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

thing, and I don’t mind letting you all into 
it. Fortunately, I still had my luck-piece — 
an ancient Roman coin — with me. 

“‘Now,’ thought I, ‘let the antique beer 
check decide it. I will cinch this question by 
tossing up. If it falls heads, I am Many- 
snifters, and if the reverse appears, I am the 
Professor. I will abide by the decree of 
Fate.’ 

“ Up went the Denarius, striking the as- 
phalt with a merry ring in its fall. I bent 
eagerly over it, and lo, the image and super- 
scription of Caesar stared me in the face! 

“ So I was Manysnifters after all, and this 
fact was further impressed upon me an hour 
or so later by an enterprising office-seeker, to 
whom, in my enfeebled state, I fell an easy 
prey — I endorsed his application for the 
Nova Zembla consulship.” 


IV 


AN ACCIDENT DINNER 

Colonel Manysnifters's story was very 
thirst-provoking, and President Madison, our 



grinning drink-mixer, had a busy half-hour 
of it. It was now about seven o’clock and 


49 


50 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

we were again overtaken by the storm, which 
hurled itself upon us, fairly rocking the car 
in its violence. The train, which had been 
proceeding slowly and jerkily, now came to a 
full stop. An avalanche of snow, earth, and 
loose stones had fallen at the end of a 
deep cut. Had we been going at any speed 
an awful catastrophe would have resulted. 
As it was we were barely moving when we 
ran into the obstruction. It would be hours 
before the track could be cleared, and there 
was no relief in sight. Fortunately, we were 
well provisioned, and could stand a siege of 
a day or so in any event. The brakeman 
set out on his long, hard journey to the near- 
est telegraph station, swinging his lantern, 
and swearing picturesquely. Every precau- 
tion was taken to guard the train against fur- 
ther accident. Our party accepted the inevi- 
table philosophically. Dinner was announced, 
and amid the good things provided by our 
chef we soon forgot our mishap. 

“ Now, gentlemen,” said Colonel Many- 
snifters genially, between the soup and fish, 
“ let’s cut out golf, religion, baseball, and 
politics, and get down to serious subjects. 
Senator, what is the best poker hand you ever 
held?” 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 51 

Senator Wendell, thus addressed, said, 
with a far-away look in his eyes, “Let me 
see, let me see. Oh, I remember now; it hap- 
pened twice — three times — or was it three 
times? Twice I will swear to.” 

“How’s that?” 

“I say it happened twice; I am positive 
of it — and before the draw, too.” 

“Who was dealing?” asked the Colonel 
eagerly. 

“ Poker stories barred,” said Senator 
Baker sternly. “ Remember, gentlemen, that 
this is a non-partisan gathering; not only 
that, but some of us know absolutely nothing 
about the game. And yet, and yet,” said he 
thoughtfully, as if to himself, “ it is a fas- 
cinating subject. Why, on one occasion, — I 
will never forget it, — being right under the 
guns, I passed without looking at my hand. 
The man next to me opened the pot, and all 
the rest stayed. I picked up my cards care- 
lessly, and imagine my delight when I found 
that I had ” 

“ Senator, Senator,” said Van Rensselaer 
reproachfully, “ I am surprised. I didn’t 
think you would go back on the sentiments 
you so warmly espoused a few moments ago. 
Let us avoid so agitating a topic. Person- 


52 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ally,” continued he, slowly and dreamily, as 
if going into a trance, “ I have no objection 
to the game. I have played it myself, though 
I do not pose as an expert. Coming over 
on the steamer last summer — ’twas the night 
before we landed — the game was steep, pain- 
fully steep, and nothing friendly about it, 
with the lid off finally. I was about two 
thousand to the bad, — it was the consolation 
round, ending with and up to me, — my deal, 
and the fellows counting and stacking their 
chips preparatory to cashing in. I doled the 
papes with deliberation, and a saddened soul, 
and skinned my hand carefully. They were 
hearts — all but one. A seven, four, six, five 
and a trey of clubs. That’s the way they 
came to me. A nice little straight, but appar- 
ently not nice enough. All the fellows stayed, 
and there was considerable hoisting before 
the draw. Then the man next to me took 
one card; the Englishman with the monocle, 
two ; General Thomas, one ; the fat man from 
Cincinnati, three (to his aces), and Doctor 
McNab stood pat; and then discarding the 
trey of clubs — foolhardy, very foolhardy, but 
I did it — I dealt myself one — the eight of 
hearts! My, how good I felt! The battle 
was on! Backwards and forwards, back- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 53 

wards and forwards, until one by one the 
players dropped out, leaving the Doctor and 
myself to settle it. Doctor McNab saw my 
three thousand and raised me five. 

“ Five better,” said I. 

“Back at you,” said he; the others in 
the meanwhile keeping tab in their note- 
books. 

“ Once again,” said I. 

“ And again,” said he. 

“That was about all I could stand, and I 
called him. With a leer of triumph he threw 
his hand on the table, face-up, display- 
ing ” 

“ Stop him, stop him ! ” shouted Mr. Rid- 
ley, rising excitedly. “ Don’t let him take 
the money ! If I’d a knowed you at the time, 
brother, it never would a happened! I’d a 
put you wise to that McNab. He ain’t no 
more doctor than I am, and his name ain’t 
McNab either! The scar-faced son of a 
gun ! I’ve been up against him, and so has 
Bull; ain’t you, Nathan?” 

“ Poker stories are barred, I believe,” said 
the Senator coldly. 

Mr. Ridley’s face was a study. 

“Well, I’ll be damned!” he muttered, 
with his mouth full of potatoes. “ Let’s 


54 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

change the subject; there are lots of other 
things to talk about. I like war stories, my- 
self. Senator,” said he, turning to Senator 
Hammond, “ the first time I ever saw you — 
and then it was some distance off — ^you were 
in the biggest kind of a hurry; I never saw a 
man so anxious to get from here, say, to over 
there.” 

“When was it? I do not recollect,” said 
the old veteran pleasantly. 

“Why, at Bull Run; don’t you remember 
Bull Run?” 

“Do I? Well, I should say I did. You 
fellows certainly had us going that day, and 
if you had been smart you would have pushed 
matters, captured Washington, and thus 
ended the war, or at least have been in a posi- 
tion to dictate your own terms. As to our 
retreat, I remember so well the disgusted 
tones of a staunch Union lady living in Wash- 
ington, speaking to one of the boys on the 
night of our return. 

“ ‘ You coward I ’ she said bitterly, ‘ to run 
away at the first fire 1 Don’t you know that 
the finger of scorn will be pointed at you all 
the rest of your life?’ 

“‘That may be so, lady,’ said the soldier 
doggedly, ‘ but I’d ruther hev the finger o’ 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 55 

scorn pinted at me any time than one o’ them 
damned Rebel cannon ! ’ 

“ And another of the boys limping by, 
foot-sore and weary, was accosted by this 
same angry dame, ‘You ran, did you? You 
ran ! Shame ! Shame I A big fellow like 
you ! Why did you run ? ’ 

“ ‘ I run, mum, ’cause I couldn’t fly, that’s 
why I run ! ’ ” 

“Yes, quite true; and yet, after all, how 
like the moon we are,” muttered one of the 
newspaper men disconnectedly. 

“'How so?” inquired Senator Hammond 
acidly. 

“ Why, here we are, full — gloriously full 
— on the twentieth of the month, and eight 
days later, down to our last quarter.” 

“That’s bad, very bad, O’Brien,” said an- 
other scribe mournfully. “ Forgive him. 
Senator. I will have something to say to 
him later.” Withering glances were cast at 
the unlucky one, who seemed about to sink 
under the table, and the wind outside howled 
dismally, and rattled the windows in its 
rage. 

The situation was steadied somewhat by 
Senator Pennypacker. The Senator, who en- 
tered public life five years ago a poor man. 


56 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

and who, by living economically, saving his 
pay, and borrowing his chewing tobacco, is 
at present worth considerably over a million 



dollars, now favored the company with some 
sage remarks as to the tendency of the times 
toward extravagance, the high cost of living 
in Washington, the iniquity of the boarding- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 57 

house keepers, and the difficulty he had to 
make both ends meet. The Senator is a tall, 
lank, ungainly looking man ; thin lipped, with 
mean, cunning eyes, strained ever for the 
main chance. A few tufts of reddish hair 
are flattened on either side of his cranium, 
and his nose and chin were sharpened on the 
grindstone of necessity and early hardship 
into twin beaks. Verily a vulture, battening 
now on the Trusts, and feared and hated by 
other birds of smaller body and weaker wing. 
With him. Selfishness is indeed the main- 
spring of Ambition ! His features are well- 
known to the public through the medium of 
those extensive advertisements in the papers 
heralding the great vegetable remedy “ Gee- 
Soo-Na.” 

His remarks were received in silence, 
though a careful observer might have noticed 
an exchange of solemn winks between Colonel 
Manysnifters and Sammy Ridley. 

“ Oh, he is the stingy one, all right,” 
Colonel Manysnifters confided later to Mr. 
Ridley. “ He is the kind of fellow who 
would send his best girl a box of candy Sat- 
urday morning, and call around Sunday night 
and eat it all up.” 

When the Senator had fully delivered him- 


58 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

self, some one brought up the negro ques- 
tion. 

“ They certainly are the limit in Washing- 
ton,” said Colonel Manysnifters. “ The 
sassy black rascals seem to think they own the 
town. And nigger policemen, too ! Think 
of a white man being arrested by a nigger 
policeman ! ” 

“ I do not see why lawbreakers should ob- 
ject to the color of the man who gathers them 
in,” said Van Rensselaer sarcastically. 

“We Southerners do, anyway,” retorted 
the Colonel hotly. 

“You Southerners should behave your- 
selves, then there would be no trouble,” ob- 
served Senator Hammond dryly. 

“Well, that’s all right, now,” said Colonel 
Manysnifters, flaring up, “ we don’t expect 
you Northerners to feel as we do about it! 
We ” 

“ Come, come, Manysnifters,” said Sen- 
ator Bull pacifically, “ don’t get excited. Don’t 
let the ‘ nigger in the wood-pile ’ spoil this 
occasion. Calm yourself.” 

“ Oh, I’m not excited. It takes a lot to ex- 
cite me,” said the Colonel; “but just to give 
you an idea of how things are going in 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 59 

Washington, a cousin of mine from Atlanta, 
a kindly disposed chap as ever lived, meet- 
ing an old negress on the street there the 
other day, said to her, ‘Well, Auntie, how 
are you this bright morning? ’ 

“‘Huh I’ exclaimed the old woman an- 
grily, ‘ Auntie ! ’ Don’t you call me no 
‘ Auntie ! ’ I ain’t yoh aunt, and I ain’t yoh 
uncle; I’se yoh ekal!’ Now wouldn’t that 
jar you? That’s the way the niggers feel 
about it in Washington.” 

“ Forget it. Many snifters,” urged Senator 
Bull, “ forget it. Give the colored brother 
a show. He will work out his own salva- 
tion.” 

“At the end of a rope,” growled the 
Colonel. 

“ Be charitable, sir, be charitable,” said 
Senator Pennypacker ponderously. “ The 
negro problem lies with the white people of 
the South. They will solve it. Give them 
time. Perhaps they may find 

“ ‘ With keen, discriminating sight, 

Black’s not so black. 

Nor white’s so very white ! ’ ” 


“ Oh, we will solve it all right,” said 
Colonel Manysnifters knowingly, “trust us 


6o THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


for that. Only — you Northern folks keep 
your hands off. That’s all we ask! ” 

Mr. Ridley, to soothe the fiery Southerner, 
poured out a generous libation, and the dark 
cloud rolled over. 


V 

SENATOR bull's STORY 

When we returned to the observation car 
Senator Bull was unanimously called to the 
chair. 

“ I shall hark back to my boyhood days,” 
said he, “and relate an incident in my early 
life, and its sequel when I attained man’s 
estate. I suppose all of us have had ex- 
periences which have more than once brought 
home the weight of that bewhiskered old 
maxim — ‘ Truth is stronger than fiction.’ 

“ There were twelve of us — Bert Martin, 
Joey Scott, Tom Hyland, Georgie Morris, 
Jake Milburn, Bob Hardee, Lannie Sudduth, 
Owen Prouty, Alf Rush, Ed Ross, Dolph 
Levy, and myself. The Forestburg Rifles 
we called ourselves. Ed Ross was captain, 
and Lannie Sudduth and Bob Hardee, lieu- 
tenants. There were no other officers, for 
that would have left too few privates; but, as' 
it was, our nine men marching single file and 
wide apart made a fine showing. Owen 

6i 


62 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


Prouty limping bravely along, brought up 
the rear. ‘ That lame Prouty boy ’ was the 
gamest fellow in the command and it nearly 
broke his heart when we marched away in 
earnest in sixty-one, and left him behind — the 
leader of the home-guard. 

“ The Rifles were armed with wooden 
guns, and drilled twice a week in Bert Mar- 
tin’s barn — drilled with almost the same pre- 
cision and attention to the manual as we had 
to do in later years. Ed Ross was a strict 
disciplinarian even then, and awfully in ear- 
nest. Indeed, we all were for that matter. 
When the notion is strong upon them, young 
folks beat their elders all hollow at that sort 
of thing. Every Saturday afternoon at three 
o’clock, weather permitting, we met at our 
armory, and after some preliminary maneu- 
vers marched down High Street. Old Cush 
Woodberry and the other loafers at Horton’s 
would come out on the platform in front of 
the store and review the troops. The inter- 
est those lazy fellows took in us was aston- 
ishing. Old Cush even volunteered one day 
to give us some instructions in tactics, but our 
gallant captain courteously declined. There 
were others, though, who did not admire us 
so much. The green-eyed monster reigned 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 63 

supreme over on Liberty Street, and around 
by the court-house lot. There the country 
lads in town for Saturday market were en- 
trenched, and they jeered at us enviously from 
the line of wagons drawn up in battle array. 
Occasionally a rotten apple or potato would 
sail through the air in our direction, but we 
marched past our tormentors stiffly erect, and 
apparently unconscious. Had our numbers 
been stronger we would have joyfully stormed 
the enemy’s works, but the country boys were 
bigger than we, and vastly more numerous; 
so with us discretion was indeed the better 
part of valor. 

“ The Rifles were organized just after 
school broke up, and flourished all that sum- 
mer; a remarkable thing for Forestburg 
boys, for we were a squabbling lot, prone to 
quarrel and fight upon the slightest provoca- 
tion. But in some way our captain held us 
together — just as he did afterward at Antie- 
tam and Gettysburg. Dear old chap, he 
holds us still ! 

“ In early September we received our 
colors. Up to that time Owen Prouty had 
carried a small flag on his musket, but it had 
never been dignified as the company’s colors. 
Our real flag was given to us by the little 


64 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

McDermott girl, and the giving was done so 
prettily and sweetly that our boyish hearts 
were touched — and this is saying a good 
deal. Not, indeed, that the Forestburg boys 
were rougher than other boys, for I guess 
they are all pretty much alike; but we had 
been taught to hate and shun the McDer- 
motts. They were newcomers, and Danny 
McDermott had been a Young Irelander, or 
something else equally as dreadful. Then, 
too, Forestburg was a Knownothing strong- 
hold, and we fell naturally into our daddies’ 
way of thinking. So we roundly snubbed the 
pleasant-faced Danny and his family when- 
ever we had a chance, and the fellows at 
school used to bully Terence, the son, most 
atrociously. Yet as we marched by the Mc- 
Dermotts’ on Saturday afternoons little Katie 
would always run out to the gate delightedly 
and wave a large flag, and after a while we 
came to look upon the little golden-haired 
child and her flag as quite a feature of our 
parade. Finally, one day she stepped into 
the street, and with a quaint curtsy presented 
the flag, garlanded with roses and butter- 
cups, to our captain. The command was at 
once ordered to halt, and all eyes were fixed 
upon Ed and the blushing child. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 65 

“ ‘ Attention ! ’ shouted Captain Ross. We 
obeyed and looked straight ahead as good 
soldiers should, with a sly glance out of the 
corners of our eyes at our leader. But Ed 
knew just what to do. He faced about 
sharply, and made a low bow to the lady, 
took the flag held out to him, and then made 
a speech. Ed Ross was always a fine talker, 
and had won the elocution prize at school the 
year before. On this occasion he fairly sur- 
passed himself. I have often thought of it 
since. At our next meeting we unanimously 
elected Miss Katherine Burke McDermott 
an honorary member of the Rifles. Tom 
Ryland’s sister drew up the resolutions, and 
they were very beautiful. 

“ It was a sultry afternoon, and the little 
jury-room was suffocating. The fight for a 
life which had raged out in the gloomy court- 
room for two weeks or more was now trans- 
ferred to the ten by twelve cubby-hole where 
we had been cooped up since noon. The evi- 
dence against the prisoner was overwhelming, 
but some of the jurors still wavered as to 
their clear duty. Eight of us were for mur- 
der in the first degree ; the others were in the 
same frame of mind, I am sure, but tanta- 


66 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


lizingly slow about saying so. It looked like 
an all-night struggle. 

“ Thrice since midday had Sheriff Watkins 
popped in his red head and asked if we had 
agreed upon a verdict, and as often had he an- 
grily withdrawn. Watkins had a profound 
contempt for juries in general, and our jury 
in particular. According to the sheriff, the 
case of Commonwealth against Hardy was 
decided, and decided fully, when Dillingham 
finished his speech. Dillingham was the 
prosecuting attorney, and Watkins wor- 
shipped him down to the ground. Watkins 
was therefore clearly prejudiced, but in this 
instance his views were undeniably sound. 

“ The court, despairing and thirsty, had 
adjourned to meet at seven o’clock. In the 
jury-room all arguments for and against the 
stand taken by the unshaken eight seemed ex- 
hausted. The hours dragged wearily by. At 
half-past five o’clock, to our great surprise, 
three of the obstinate crowd came over to 
our way of thinking. Whether stern duty, 
our mutual discomfort, or the prospect of 
another night away from their families 
wrought this, I know not. So then, with the 
single exception of Colonel Ross, we were all 
for stringing up the prisoner. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 67 

“ Colonel Ross still stuck out doggedly for 
a milder punishment — anything to save the 
poor devil’s life, he said. For the first time 
in my career I rebelled against the judgment 
of my old friend, and for the first time found 
myself arrayed against him, and the novelty 
of the situation was far from agreeable. The 
clock in the town hall struck six, and the 
whistles down at Thayer’s mill blew furi- 
ously. The Colonel was biting the ends of 
his mustache and gazing moodily into the 
crowded street below. I went up to him and 
put my hand on his shoulder. 

“ ‘ Now, Colonel,’ said I, in my most per- 
suasive tones, ‘ can’t you make up your mind 
to join us in this thing? We are all agreed 
except yourself. God knows we have no per- 
sonal feeling against Hardy. We are simply 
doing what we think is our duty, and a 
mighty nasty one it is, too! You know that. 
But we owe something to society — society, 
whose structure was shaken to its very founda- 
tion by the perpetration of this crime! (Dil- 
lingham’s own words.) The prisoner is 
clearly guilty. Why, the fellow practically 
confesses it. We ought to put some stop to 
the killing and general rascality up there in 
the settlement. Our section is fast becoming 


68 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


a monstrous blot on the fair name of the 
Commonwealth! (Dillingham again.) What 
is there left for us to do but carry out the 

law? What is there left for ” My voice 

died away weakly. Something in the Colonel’s 
face effectually blasted my budding eloquence. 
At that moment I felt myself a greater crim- 
inal than Hardy or any of his gang. 

“ Colonel Ross tapped the floor impatiently 
with his crutch. He was a testy man, but 
much was borne from him. 

“ ‘ Gentlemen,’ said he, his eyes flashing, 
‘ I verily think that the good God above in 
His great wisdom and mercy picked out this 
jury Himself. I am sure He did. Now, 
listen to me. It will not take long. 

“ ‘ We have all had a tedious two weeks 
of it, haven’t we? The weather has been 
warm; our business neglected; some of us 
have sick ones at home we are anxious to see ; 
and we are all losing our health and temper 
in this close confinement. And I by no means 
omit the dreadful meals at the Darby House. 
But, gentlemen, rather than come over to you 
and hang Eph Hardy, I would stay here for- 
ever! Not, indeed, that there is any danger 
of that, for the Judge will discharge us pretty 
soon if we do not come to terms. But I can 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 69 



Colonel Ross addressing the jury. 


70 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

at least go to my home with nothing to haunt 
me the rest of my life. I can at least close 
my eyes at night without fear of troubled 
dreams or hours of unrest. And I thank 
God for it. 

“ ‘ Now, my friends, while all that weVe 
gone through has been wearing on a fellow, 
it has not been without interest. You have 
doubtless heard and gazed in wonder at “ the 
cloud of witnesses ” the defense and prosecu- 
tion have summoned for this case. You have 
listened open-mouthed to the fine eloquence 
of the lawyers. You have seen, day after 
day, the fashionable city folk, who have 
come down to our little town, troop in and 
take their seats — and the reporters, and the 
men with the cameras, and the hungry-look- 
ing “poor whites.” Now, gentlemen, of 
course you have seen and heard all this, and 
of course you have been duly impressed. I 
have been, I grant you ; but of late there has 
been but one thing in that court-room I could 
see; but one thing that interested me, and 
held my attention to the exclusion of all else. 
I don’t suppose you know what I mean. It 
is this — back, ’way back by the door a little 
woman has been in torture, such torture as I 
hope you will never know. I cannot keep my 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 71 

eyes from that shabbily dressed figure; from 
that white, tear-stained face. Again and 
again I have seen her veil drawn down, and 
the poor creature shaking with grief. At 
first I did not know her, though I guessed. 
Watkins told me about her. She is the pris- 
oner’s mother. 

“ ‘ When Dillingham was putting in his fin- 
ishing touches this morning I thought of my 
mother. She was like that when they brought 
my brother Archie home. You remember 
Archie — and the day he was drowned? We 
were all in swimming that Sunday, you know, 
and Parson Moore said it was a judgment, 
but my poor mother could not bring herself 
to think so. 

“ ‘ Well, the Hardy woman called to mind 
mother when they told her about Archie. 
That same awful, awful look of despair. 

“ ‘ As I said before, I see the hand of God 
in the choosing of this jury.’ The Colonel 
eyed us almost exultingly. 

“ ‘ Boys ! Attention ! ’ Mechanically we 
old soldiers arose and faced about, obeying 
our Colonel as of yore. The order was elec- 
trical, and set us tingling with expectation. 
Something else was surely coming. 


72 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

“ The Colonel bowed profoundly to an im- 
aginary person at his side. 

“ ‘ Boys, listen ! “ I accept this flag from 

your fair hands in behalf of my men and 
myself. Mere words fail to express our 
thanks, but in deeds most glorious will we 
attest our love for you, and the Stars and 
Stripes ! ” — or something like that — all very 
childish and grandiloquent, but we kept our 
word, didn’t we? And again — picture it to 
yourselves, now — Bob Hardee’s barn; your 
captain in the chair; Private Ryland rises, 
and offers the following: “Be it Resolved, 
that Miss Katherine Burke McDermott be, 
and hereby is, elected an honorary member 
for life in the Forestburg Rifles, and that we 
swear to cherish and protect her forever.” 
That was the gist of it, I believe, and there 
were other resolutions regarding the same 
young lady, which have unfortunately escaped 
my memory. But, boys, need I remind you 
that these resolutions were adopted unani- 
mously? O, let them bind us still! That 
broken-hearted woman in there was once the 
little golden-haired lass to whom we were so 
loyal in the long ago. Shall we not be loyal 
to-day? It isn’t justice, and it isn’t law; but. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 73 

boys, we’ve got to save that fellow’s life — 
now, haven’t we? ’ 

: “ An hour later we entered the court-room. 
The woman over by the door looked up with 
a faint flush on her face. Hope had made it 
radiant. She knew that ‘ The Rifles ’ would 
never vote to take her boy’s life ! 

“And she was right. 

“We acquitted him. 

“The verdict was heard in absolute si- 
lence. Then there was a slight stir in the 
rear of the room. Nothing, after all; only 
— a woman had fainted. It was hot in the 
court-room that night, and no place for wo- 
men, anyhow, as Colonel Ross gruffly re- 
marked at the time. 

“ But there were tears in his eyes.” 


VI 

REPRESENTATIVE HOLLOWAY HAS THE 
FLOOR 

At the conclusion of Senator Bull’s story 
President Madison was again requisitioned, 
and a crap game which was in lively progress 
in the dining-car was thus rudely disturbed. 

“Tell us, Holloway, about your nomina- 
tion and election to Congress. Was it not 
somewhat in the nature of a surprise?” 
asked Congressman Van Rensselaer. 

“ Very much so. It will hardly make a 
story, but if you would like to hear how it 
happens that the — th District of Illinois is 
represented in Congress by a Democrat for 
the first time in its history, here goes — but 
mind you, now, I don’t pretend to be in Sen- 
ator Bull’s class as a story teller. 

“ It was a piping hot day in August, and 
Harrisville at its worst. Whenever a vehicle 
passed, clouds of dust floated in at the win- 
dows and settled upon my books, my papers, 
and covered my green baize table with an in- 
74 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 75 

finitesimal section of H County real 

estate. Even the slumberer on the sofa was 
not exempt. His usually ruddy face had be- 
come ashen, and his snoring was developing 
into a series of choking gasps. It was fear- 
ful, this dust, — alkaline, penetrating, stifling, 
— and from such soil the raw-boned, hard- 

featured men of H wrung a living. And 

I, sharing their narrow lives, began to un- 
derstand the true significance of the word 
‘ onery ’ as applied to us by our more pros- 
perous and ofttimes just exasperated neigh- 
bors. 

“ It was court day, and I had just come in 
after a stiff tussle with a pig-headed judge, an 

irritating opposing counsel, and a H 

County jury. I thought of old Uncle Peter 
Whitehead, ‘ The onriest critters in the whole 

State of Illinoy come out o’ H ! Thar 

ain’t no tellin’ which way an H County 

jury’s a goin’ to jump. The law and the 
facts ain’t nothin’ ter them, it’s jest the way 
they are feelin’ that particler day and min- 
nit. If so happen they got outer bed the 
wrong foot furrard that mornin’, then it’s 
good-by ter the pris’ner, and hell fer the law- 
yer that’s defendin’ him ! ’ 

“ Court had adjourned until two o’clock. 


76 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

leaving the fate of my client undecided, and 
I came into my office, tired-out, warm, and 
exceedingly anxious. Clearing Thad Haw- 
ley meant a great deal to me just then. It 
was my first important case, and I felt that 
my future would be decided in a great meas- 
ure by its outcome. If the twelve stolid 
farmers upon whom I had showered my elo- 
quence went Fraley-ward in their verdict, I 
knew that my professional goose would be 
cooked, and visions of a move to some dis- 
tant bailiwick rose up before me. Fraley 
and Hicks would then monopolize the Har- 
risville practice, and perhaps in a year or so 
some other fledgling would rise up in his ig- 
norance and be as ruthlessly cut down as I 
had been. 

“Yes, I was worried, and the sight of An- 
drew Sale asleep on my sofa did not tend to 
soothe that feeling. At any time a visit from 
the county chairman would have been most 
unwelcome, but now it was an exhibition of 
unmitigated gall ! Another contribution, I 
supposed, angrily eyeing the sleeper. I had 
been the ‘ good thing ’ for Sale and his crowd 
for some years past, and had pretty well re- 
solved to cut loose from them — and politics. 
I thought of the many ambitious young fel- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 77 

lows I knew who had been permanently in- 
jured while hovering around the political » 
flame. Some, indeed, were burned to death, 
others are floundering through life on crip- 
pled wings ; all were more or less singed, both 
morally and financially. My experience thus 
far had been a financial singe, and the last 
scorching was still fresh and quivering. Only 
the week before I had given Sale my check 
for quite a tolerable sum, and then as soon 
as he had left my office, kicked myself for 
doing so. The money, he said, was to go to- 
ward defraying the expenses of the nominat- 
ing convention, which was to meet at Shaw- 
nee on the twenty-first, and as a good man 
and true I had to ‘ cough up ’ with the rest 
of them. 

“And here he was again! 

“As I glared at him the chairman turned 
over uneasily, sputtered, sneezed, opened his 
eyes, and sat up, staring stupidly. 

“ ‘ How’re you? How’re you?’ he roared, 
wiping his face with a grimy handkerchief. 
‘Ain’t this dust awful? There ain’t no do- 
ing anything with it. If you put the winders 
down you’ll smother with the heat, and if 
you leave ’em up, you’ll choke to death. Hob- 
son’s choice, eh? Ha, ha! And all that 


78 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

prayin’ for rain on Sunday, too. Providence’s 
ways is certainly beyond us — ain’t they? Well, 
I rather guess this visit ’ll surprise ye.’ 

‘“It does, Mr. Sale, it does!’ said I 
warmly. ‘You know I told you when you 
were here the other day that I could not — 
you know damn well that ’ 

“ ‘ Now, now, now,’ said he soothingly, 
holding up his hand, ‘ don’t do that 1 You’re 
on the wrong tack. Mister, ’deed you are. 
There’s another guess a cornin’ to you. It 
ain’t money we want this time, no, siree ! 
Money don’t cut no ice this trip, though it is 
a mighty handy thing to have a jinglin’ in 
your jeans — ain’t it? No, it ain’t the “sin- 
ews,” as Jim McGubbin calls it; it’s you, 
Mr. Holloway; it’s you, sir! ’ 

“‘Me, Mr. Sale?’ 

“ ‘ Yes, sir; you. Why it’s as plain as the 
nose on your face, Mr. Holloway, and that 
is — the Democratic party of the — th dees- 
tric’ is pretty unanimous on one thing any- 
how, this year. I’ll admit we ain’t come to 
no final decision on our platform, but we air 
pretty generally agreed on our candi^<^^^, 
and that’s the Honrubble Andrew Jackson 
Holloway — ^yourself, sir! That’s why I am 
here to-day. When I heerd you speakin’ in 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 79 

court just now, I turned and says to Jim Mc- 
Gubbin, says I, “ That there’s the voice that’ll 
wake ’em up in Congress.” I felt just like 
the old feller in the Bible. The sperrit of 
prophecy was on me. And Jim he agreed 
with me. Jim’s got the Shawnee organiza- 
tion right under his thumb, same as — ’tween 

you and me — I’ve got H . McGubbin’s 

out and out for Holloway. “Holloway and 
Reform ! ” That’s our cry this year. I seen 
Potter James and old Pete Whitehead over 
to Andrewville yesterday, and they’ll fetch 
their people in line for you all right. If 
you’ll make the run, we’ll elect you sure ; and 
that ain’t no lie.’ 

“ Sale, a big man with a loud voice, impres- 
sive tones, and masterful ways, overpowered 
me. 

“ ‘ Sit down, Mr. Sale,’ I said weakly, ‘ sit 
down. Let us talk it over. This nomina- 
tion — it is a great honor, I am sure — I can 
scarcely tell you how flattered — how ’ 

“ ‘ Oh, that’s all right, that’s all right,’ said 
he, beaming. ‘ I know’d you’d be a little, 
well— flustered, eh? — when I fust broke the 
news to you, and I don’t say but what it isn’t 
perfectly natural, too. These things don’t 
happen to a man every day, and especially to 


8o THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


— beggin’ your pardon — to a man as young 
as yourself, sir. But the Democratic party 
of the — th deestric’ of Illinoy knows a good 
thing when they sees it.’ Sale’s unconscious 
sarcasm hurt me. ‘ I have sounded them to 
the bottom,’ he went on, ‘ and it’s Holloway, 
Holloway, Holloway, everywhere. Now 
you’ll let us put you up, won’t you? There 
ain’t no earthly doubt ’bout your gettin’ the 
nomination. Harrison may give old Colonel 
Harrison its vote on the first ballot, just as a 
compliment, you know; and I’ll admit that 
down Hall City way there’s some talk of 
Sile Munyon, but there ain’t nothin’ to it. 
We’ll prick the Munyon boom before it’s 
bigger’n a pea. We’ll fix things, you bet. 
And we’ll elect you, too ! It’s a good job to 
hold down — that of being a Congressman; 
it ain’t the office so much as it is the purga- 
tives that go with it. I’d like to go to Con- 
gress myself. Maybe I will some day. Well, 
as I was goin’ to say, I driv over to the 
Courthouse Sunday, and saw the boys there, 
and I talked them into the right way o’ 
thinkin’. They are all O. K. 

“ ‘ There’s a deal of grumblin’ and dissat- 
isfaction ’mongst the Republicans just now. 
Sam Thorne ain’t done the square thing by 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 8i 


the gang that ’lected him, and they are 
mighty sore over it. Washington’s kinder 
turned his head. He’s got awful stuck up of 
late, and wears a long-tailed coat and beaver 
hat all the time. And that ’pointment of 
Ben McConnell postmaster of Liberty has 
hurt Thorne and the Republican party a heap 
all over the deestric’. Ben McConnell never 
voted the Republican ticket but twicst in his 
life. Up to two years ago he was a red-hot 
Democrat, and no one down in their hearts. 
Republican or Democrat, has any use for a 
turncoat. I take it all in all, he is the most 
onpopular man in Illinoy to-day. His con- 
duct is as hard to swaller as a dose of them 
old Greek twins. Castor Oil and Politics, we 
use to wrastle with at school. Of course in 
political life, like in ordinary life, you have to 
eat a peck o’ dirt before you die, but you 
don’t have to eat it all at oncst like he’s a 
doin’ ! Why, old war-horses. Republicans 
all their lives, were turned down for this 
here upstart! It’s done the party a deal of 
harm. And then, as I said before, Sam 
Thorne’s confounded airs is making every- 
body sick. No one ever thought anything 
of the Thornes when I fust grew up. They 
wasn’t no better’n any one else. Sam 


82 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


Thorne’s father was the clerk of the court 
at Liberty, and a darned poor one at that, 
as I have often heard my father say. I went 
to school with Sam, and many’s the thrashin’ 
I have given him, but that’s neither here nor 
there. 

“‘Oh, we’ve got ’em this time, sure! Yes, 
they’re going’ to run Thorne again. He’s 
got hold of a wad there in Washington, and 
can buy up the whole convention if need be. 
I wouldn’t trust any of them Republicans. 
The Democratic party is above sech doin’s. 
We stand for purity, patriotism — the whole 
bag o’ tricks I Ha, ha ! And politics, I 
guess, is like everything dse. So long as you 
stick to the Thirteenth Commandment, you’ll 
get there without any trouble.’ 

“‘The Thirteenth Commandment’? 

“‘Yes, the Thirteenth — “Thou shalt not 
be found out,” you know. Oh, we’ll fix the 
Thorne gang as sure’s you’re born to die 1 
My luck’ll carry you through. It sure will 1 
A chiropodist in Chicago once told me that 
there was a terribul commotion in the heavens 
when I was born. Venus was bit by the Dog 
Star — or some sech foolishness — all of which 
went to show that I come on the earth at jest 
the right diabolical moment. And I guess 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 83 



Stick to the Thirteenth Commandment ! 




84 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

the fellow knew what he was a talkin’ about, 
with his maps, and charts, and things. Any- 
way, I’ve got no kick cornin’. I have always 
had the best o’ good luck, and I’ll pass it on 
to you.’ 

“ Sale was a good talker, and carried every- 
thing before him. Now and then I man- 
aged to slip in a word or two in feeble pro- 
test, but he swept away all my objections 
with the same easy movement that he chased 
off the flies from his face. 

“ When I looked at my watch it was ten 
minutes before two o’clock. Sale was going 
out into the hot street, jubilant, and I was 
the more than probable nomine^ of the Demo- 
cratic party of the — th district for Congress ! 
I knew that Sale would make good his word ; 
and, having given it, I would stick to mine. 
But my tempter out of the way, I writhed 
and groaned under my folly and weakness. I 
grabbed up my hat, and hurried back to 
court as in a nightmare. The Hawley case 
went against me, but it paled into insignifi- 
cance by the side of my newer and greater 
misfortune. 

“For Sale had hypnotized me! 

“ Of course I was nominated. Nominated 
with shouts, and cat-calls, and much unearthly 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 85 

clamor. Nominated on the second ballot to 
the eternal confusion of the Munyon crowd, 
who afterward, I have been told, bolted the 
ticket and voted solidly for my Republican 
opponent. I made a speech, and was wildly 
cheered, then dragged in Lum Atkins’s buggy 
to my hotel by an army of yelling partisans. 
I was interviewed by reporters, photographed 
by an enthusiastic young woman on the Argus 
staff, and made in every way to feel that I 
was one of the truly great. But I knew other- 
wise. 

“ In the months following I hobnobbed 
lovingly with every heeler, ward-worker, and 
thug in that part of the State. My bar’l 
was tapped, and well tapped. The stubs in 
my check-book are mutely eloquent. Then 
the press got in its fine work. When the op- 
position sheets were through with me not a 
shred of character had I left. I shivered in 
my moral nakedness, one enterprising jour- 
nal said, and that is just about what I did. 
My public appearances — on the stump, and 
on the rostrum — afforded rare fun for the 
other side. I was not an orator — never 
claimed to be one — and of course they made 
the most of it. I spoke my little piece as well 
as I could, but my opponent was known as 


86 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


‘ The Silver-tongued Demosthenes of Illi- 
nois ’ — or something like that — so where did 
I come in? And how those newspaper fel- 
lows did enjoy it all! God bless them! 
They have proven good friends of mine since, 
but their sharpened quills were fiery darts 
to me in those days ! 

“And I was otherwise discouraged. My 
encounter with big Bill Such of Sangamon 
left him, as before, the undisputed rough and 
tumble champion of middle Illinois. My 
people at home, too, were solidly against 
me. Life-long Republicans, as they had al- 
ways been, they felt that I had disgraced 
them, and showed it very plainly. As the 
standard-bearer of a party upon whose ban- 
ners Victory had never perched, at least so 
far as my district was concerned, I was in- 
deed the leader of a forlorn and ragged 
hope; but my blood was up, and I was de- 
termined at least to make a better showing 
than any other Democrat had done. 

“ But it was an expensive ambition. 

“ Election day rolled around, and I spent 
the greater part of the time driving to and 
from the polling places in my own county. 

I was particularly anxious to carry H , 

even though all the other counties failed me. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 87 

That would soften the blow to the family 
pride, I thought. Not a morsel of food 
passed my lips during the whole of that try- 
ing fifth of November. From sunrise to 
sunset I never left my buggy, except once to 
vote, and at nightfall I was fairly done up. 
When all was over I was too tired-out to 
await returns at headquarters, so I turned in 
quite early, only venturing to hope that the 
fate of Judkins would not be mine. For 
Judkins, a recent victim, had been so over- 
whelmingly defeated in the spring elections 
that he had retired from the political arena in 
disgust; anathematizing politics in general 
and the politics of the — th district in particu- 
lar. Then, in his weak and shattered condi- 
tion, he fell into the arms of the eldest Par- 
sons girl, who had been stalking him for, lo, 
these many years ! 

“ I slept as soundly as though trouble, 
sorrow, and Congressional elections had 
never been; and in the morning came the 
surprise. 

“I was elected by an enormous majority! 

“I can not explain this phenomenon; they 
are still trying to do that out my way. It was 
an upheaval, with the great Democratic party 
and its astonished candidate very much on 


88 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


top. Its like will never occur again in my 
State; not in my district, anyhow. A recent 
Republican gerrymander will prevent that. 
Andrew Sale says he did it. Maybe he did; 
I don’t know.” 

“It was Fate — f-a-t-e — Fate!” said 
Colonel Manysnifters, solemnly. “There’s 
no avoiding it. My sainted parents, both good 
Presbyterians in their day, would doubtless 
have urged predestination. That may be it. 
Your election to Congress was something you 
couldn’t sidestep. Nor, by the same token, 
can I. Only when I am nominated, I don’t 
worry any more. There is a general election, 
I believe, but that doesn’t fret me much. We 
have eliminated the opposition down our way 
— perfectly legal and statutory. Oh, yes. 
There are a few ‘ lily-white ’ votes cast on the 
other side, they tell me, — sort of a registered 
kick for conscience’s sake, I suppose, — but it 
is just a matter of form, and nobody gets 
excited over it. They are trifles lighter than 
air, yet — ♦ 


‘ Small things should not unheeded be, 
Nor atoms due attention lack, 

We all know well the miseree 
Occasioned by an unseen tack! ’ 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 89 
“ And again : 


“ ‘ Little drops of water, 

Little grains of sand 

Make contractors’ mortar 

That is used throughout the land.’ ” 

“ Well,” said Sammy Ridley, drawing a 
deep breath when the Colonel was through, 
“ I may be a damn fool, but I am no poet! ” 


VII 

REPRESENTATIVE VAN RENSSELAER 
UNFOLDS A STRANGE TALE 

“ And now, Van Rensselaer,” said Col- 
onel Manysnifters, “ it’s around to you. I 
reckon you have something up your sleeve 
that will surprise us, eh?” The debonair 
Congressman from the Empire State was 
quite equal to the occasion. He seemed 
primed and ready, and needed no further 
urging. There was another hiss of soda, the 
clink of glasses, and with a prolonged sigh 
of satisfaction he began. 

“ This is a true tale, and unfolded now 
for the first time. Harken unto the evi- 
dence. 

“ It was a lovely afternoon in early spring, 
and ‘ The Avenue ’ was alive with a leisurely 
moving throng — for no one hurries in Wash- 
ington. I strolled along, thoroughly enjoy- 
ing the balmy weather, the crowds, and the 
charm of it all. About four o’clock hundreds 
of government clerks streamed out slug- 
90 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 91 

gishly from the side streets. At the crossings 
fakirs were busy, their customers good- 
naturedly elbowing each other in their eager- 
ness to be swindled. And violets every- 
where ! The air was filled with the scent of 
them. Men, women, and children with trays 
piled high with the tiny purple and white 
flowers were doing a tremendous business; 
their customers ranging from dignified states- 
men to the loudly dressed Afro-American 
gayly swinging along. Out of the fashion- 
able Northwest came many carriages, passing 
from the grim shadow of the Treasury into 
the sunlit way beyond. The trend of move- 
ment was eastward — always eastward — 
toward the great white dome on the 
hill. Congress was in session, and his- 
tory was making there. The war de- 
bate was on in all its fury, with the whole 
world listening breathlessly. Pictures of the 
ill-fated Maine were much in evidence, and 
maps of Cuba in the shop windows were 
closely scanned. The probability of war with 
Spain was loudly and boastfully discussed by 
seedy looking men in front of the cheaper 
hotels and restaurants. Extra editions of the 
New York papers with huge scare headlines 
were eagerly bought up. The latest news 


92 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

from the Capitol — via New York — was 
seized upon with avidity. The papers were 
filled with the rumored departure of the 
American Consul-General from Havana. 
’Twas said that he was coming direct to 
Washington. His portrait and the Maine 
lithographs were hung side by side, and the 
people spoke of ‘ Our Fitz ’ with enthusiastic 
affection. The President and his Cabinet 
were roundly censured for their policy of 
moderation. Much whiskey and beer was 
consumed by thirsty patriots. The pent-up 
feeling of the people found relief here and 
there by loud cheering — especially at the bul- 
letin boards. Tiny Cuban flags were worn. 
Crossed American and Cuban flags were 
everywhere displayed. 

“ The De Lome incident — the intercepted 
letter of the imprudent Spanish Minister, 
and his subsequent disgrace and recall — was 
another much-discussed topic. It was an open 
secret, especially among the newspaper fra- 
ternity and others in the know, that the 
former minister had dispensed with lavish 
hand a corruption fund to influence writers 
on the American press. A little clique of 
journalists in and around the Capitol had 
profited greatly. Information about alleged 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 93 

filibuster movements found a ready market 
at the Spanish legation. These, and a dozen 
other subjects relative to the momentous 
events then impending, occupied the thoughts 
of a highly excited public. 

“That walk down Pennsylvania Avenue 
from the Treasury to the Capitol opened my 
eyes wider than ever to the fact that the pop- 
ular clamor was for war, war, the sooner the 
better. The sentiment in Washington voiced 
that of the entire country. Similar scenes 
were occurring in all the large cities, and I 
could fancy the crowd at the home post-office 
waiting for the latest Buffalo papers, hear 
the warm debate at Steve Warner’s, and see 
Major Kirkpatrick haranguing the boys from 
the steps of the city hall; which, in fact, he 
did. (See the Hiram Intelligencer of that 
date.) 

“ Henley of Iowa had the floor when I 
took my seat in the House. The galleries were 
filled. It was warm in the chamber, and fans, 
bright bits of color, waved briskly. In the 
Diplomatic gallery the representatives of 
many nations seemed anxious and absorbed. 
Subdued murmurs of applause, like the hum 
of a mighty hive, arose at the telling points 
of the speech, which was for war ! war I war I 


94 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

The galleries reeked with enthusiasm, and 
quailed not before the stern eye of the 
Speaker. 

“ Notwithstanding Henley’s fiery elo- 
quence, I was desperately sleepy, having been 
up late the night before; indeed, there were 
streaks of rosy light in the eastern sky when 
I reached my hotel. I found myself nodding 
at my desk, and it was with an effort that I 
turned to the work which had accumulated be- 
fore me. An enormous mail had arrived. 
The usual place-hunting letters from constitu- 
ents, a petition from the Women’s Christian 
Temperance Union of Hiram Center protest- 
ing against the sale of liquor at the Capitol, 
invitations to dine, a tempting mining pros- 
pectus, circulars without number, and at the 
bottom of the pile a square blue affair with 
the Washington postmark. I gave it my im- 
mediate attention. The letter began abruptly, 
and ran as follows : 

“ ‘ Ah, senor, have you forgotten Sara- 
toga, and the little Mercedes? Have 
you forgotten your promise to the Cuban 
girl ? Surely not ! The pain in my 
heart you must well understand, for I 
know that you love your country very 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 95 

dearly. I read your speeches — all of 
them — I read them in the papers, but 
not a word for Cuba — my poor, bleed- 
ing Cuba ! And yet you swore to me 
that night on the veranda, with the moon 
shining so softly through the vines, that 
your voice would ever be raised for 
Cuba — Cuba Libre ! Would I have 
kissed you else? Now, dear friend, when 
you make one of your beautiful speeches 
again, think of Cuba, my gasping, dy- 
ing Cuba, and 

“ ‘ Mercedes. 

“ ‘ P. S. — I am in Washington, at the 
Arlington. — M.’ 

“ This was interesting, to say the least. Of 
course, I remembered Mercedes, and oldVil- 
lasante, her fat papa, and Manuel the 
brother, and Alejandro the cousin. Yes, I 
remembered them all very well and the night 
on the veranda, with the moon shining softly 
through the vines, the music floating out to us 
from the ballroom, the innumerable bumpers 
with Manuel Villasante, Carlos Amezaga, 
Alejandro Menendez, and others of the 
Cuban colony at the hotel. Also the promise 
made to my lovely partner as to the voice 


96 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

for Cuba — Cuba Libre ! — when I took my 
seat in Congress; the warm pressure of her 
arms around my neck — and the kiss ! How 



The Kiss ! 

could I forget it? But that was two sum- 
mers ago, and my views now and then were 
vastly different. Whatever I may have said 
under the combined witchery of Mercedes, 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 97 

the moonlight, and the champagne was not 
to be seriously considered now. Like all 
Americans and lovers of liberty, I thought 
of course that Cuba should be free, that she 
should make every effort toward that much- 
to-be-desired end, but the idea of my own 
country stepping in to aid her did not strongly 
appeal to me. While Cuban affairs elicited 
the warmest interest in the States, those of 
our people who had actively assisted the pa- 
triots had become involved in endless trouble 
both with the home government and that of 
Spain. Filibustering was severely frowned 
upon, and many recent attempts had proven 
most disastrous, jeopardizing both the lives 
of the ‘ patriots ’ and the entente cor diale 
between two great and friendly nations. The 
blowing up of the Maine, undoubtedly the 
work of Cuban insurgents in order to hasten 
hostilities with Spain, had rendered the sit- 
uation most acute. Pledged to the Adminis- 
tration, I was a conservative of conservatives. 
I was therefore opposed to any interference 
in Cuban affairs, and I regarded a conflict 
with Spain as the height of folly. I was de- 
termined to fight to the bitter end any meas- 
ure for war. 

“ With all this in mind, I tore up the fair 


98 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

Cuban’s letter and threw it into the waste- 
basket. At that very moment a page hurried 
to my side and handed me a card. 

“ Manuel Villasante was waiting to see 
me ! 

“ I went out to him most reluctantly. He 
greeted me with enthusiasm ; his delight 
amounting almost to rapture. I am afraid 
I did not meet him half way, nor anywhere 
near it. He did not appear to notice it. 

“ ‘ My dear, dear friend,’ said he, ‘ this is 
a sublime moment! To see you, the gay com- 
panion, the good fellow, the butterfly, I may 
say, of other days, a member of this great 
body is certainly soul-stirring I So you have 
realized your ambition? What next? The 
Senate ? And then — then ? ’ he pointed up- 
ward, ‘higher yet? and still higher? Hal 
The White House? Who knows?’ he whis- 
pered prophetically. 

“ I cast my eyes modestly to the floor. 

“ ‘ This is quite enough for me, or any 
other good American; but, Senor, tell me 
about your father and the Senorita, your sis- 
ter ; are they well ? And how long have you 
been in Washington? It is certainly good to 
see you again.’ 

“‘We are all here for a few days — my 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 99 

father, my sister, and 1. You know we are 
living in New York this winter?’ 

“ ‘ In New York, eh? Fine ! It is strange,’ 
I continued, ‘ but I was thinking of you and 
your family the very moment your card was 
brought in.’ 

“ ‘ Ah, my friend,’ he said mysteriously, 
‘you know what it is, do you not? It is the 
mental telepathy. I have known of things 
most wonderful to happen by the mental 
telepathy. Only yesterday my sister Mer- 
cedes ’ 

“ ‘ Quite right,’ said I, heading him off, 
and remembering something I had read not 
long before, ‘ it is indeed a wonderful, subtle 
thing. We live in the midst of the unknown. 
Unseen forces drag us hither and thither. At 
times we are brought face to face with the 
occult, the eerie, the gruesome. Charcot says 
in his superb work on the subject that — er — 
that — well, we will hardly go into it now. 
Some other time. The matter is a profound 
one, and not to be touched upon lightly. How 
is my old friend Alejandro Menendez? ’ 

“ ‘ He is well, but — sh ! Caution ! Are we 
quite safe here? Yes? It is a great secret, 
but I tell you — you, a trusted friend. I tell 
you all ! Alejandro Menendez is at this very 


100 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


moment approaching the shores of our be- 
loved isle! I can see it now — the beautiful 
yacht, the calm blue sea, the brave patriots, 
and our glorious flag floating in the breeze! 
And a more magnificent body of men never 
set forth in a grander cause; with hearts full 
of courage and high purpose to fight, aye, 
to die, in the sacred cause of Liberty ! ’ 

“ ‘ That’s great ! ’ said I, with a burst of 
false enthusiasm, ‘ great ! never heard any- 
thing better in my life ! Villasante, old fel- 
low, put it there ! I admire your ner — feel- 
ing ! ’ And we clasped hands. 

“ ‘ And you will join them? ’ I added. 

“ ‘No, not yet,’ he said, with an expressive 
shrug ; ‘ I am more needed elsewhere ; here — 
in New York. There is money to be raised, 
arms and ammunition to be procured, sympa- 
thies to enlist, influence to gain. Later, I 
will see Alejandro, and the beautiful Sylph,* 
“‘The what?’ I asked, rising excitedly. 
“ ‘ The Sylph — the Sylph — queen of ves- 
sels ! Senor Robson’s yacht. Senor Robson 
— the tall handsome fellow who was with us 
at the Spa. You know him.’ 

“‘Know him? Of course I know him! 
Robson? Robson a filibuster? Impossible!’ 
“‘Why so?’ asked the Cuban coldly. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND loi 


“‘Hell, man!’ I said, ‘don’t you realize 
what it all means? — certain failure, disgrace, 
death I My God, what folly 1 ’ 

“ ‘ Never, never 1 ’ shouted Villasante, wav- 
ing his arms. ‘ Glory awaits them I The 
plaudits of the world! The embraces and 
blessings of a freed people ! Laurel wreaths 
shall crown their brows! Poets shall chant 
their praises ! History will render them im- 
mortal ! Oh, what an opportunity is theirs ! 
And everything has been most carefully 
planned. ’Twas Robson’s own idea. A 
picked lot of men, with rifles and ammuni- 
tion. He to command the vessel ; Menendez 
to assume the lead on landing. Their des- 
tination, co-operation with the patriots on 
shore, supplies — everything has been ar- 
ranged for. As to their success, I have no 
fear whatsoever ! ’ 

“I was aghast! The thought that my 
hare-brained cousin was engaged in such a 
foolhardy expedition was maddening. I 
loved the boy as a brother — indeed he was 
my foster-brother, brought up in my own 
family, and regarded as one of^us. The 
Cuban studied my face curiously. 

“ ‘ Senor,’ said he gravely, ‘ knowing your 
sentiments, I came here to-day for advice. 


102 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


There is much more to be told. Every mo- 
ment is precious. To-morrow in New 
York ’ 

“ ‘ Stop ! ’ I thundered, ‘ you have gone too 
far already! There is some mistake. You 
are laboring under a delusion. I will tell you 
frankly, Villasante, that you misjudge me. 
Many things have happened since I saw you 
at Saratoga two years ago. My views upon 
public questions have changed, as a more in- 
timate acquaintance with any subject is apt to 
effect. I should like to see your country self- 
governed, the Spanish yoke overthrown, and 
liberty in its best sense gained; but the United 
States must keep her hands off 1 It would 
mean war with a friendly nation, an ancient 
ally. In other words, there would be the 
Devil to pay! Can’t you see our position in 
the matter? ’ 

“‘Caramba!’ (or something like that) 
exclaimed Villasante excitedly, walking up and 
down, and clenching his fists. ‘Your country 
must aid us! We can not free ourselves — 
quite impossible! We are weak; Spain is 
mighty ! For centuries she has held us in her 
torturing grasp ! It has been a continual 
drain of our blood, our pride, our gold, and 
all that goes to make for the self-respect 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 103 

and prosperity of a nation ! Cuba is deso- 
lated! She cries for aid — first to you; if un- 
heeded, then to the whole world! Shall the 
Pearl of the Antilles fall to Germany, France, 
or England?’ 

“ ‘ Not while the Monroe Doctrine is re- 
spected and enforced, as it will be ! ’ said I 
spread-eagle-ly. 

“ ‘Your Monroe Doctrine, bah, I care not 
that for it!’ said he, snapping his fingers. 

‘ Let the United States look to herself if she 
refuses to help us ! As for you, Senor,’ he 
continued in milder tones, but with a threat- 
ening note, ‘ if, as you tell me, you are no 
longer our friend, as a gentleman you will at 
least respect the secret that I have so ill-ad- 
visedly betrayed to you. My kinsman’s life, 
as well as that of the Captain Robson, de- 
pend upon your silence. I rather think you 
will do us no harm, eh?’ And there he had 
me. If I was ever disposed to violate his 
confidence, the fact that I would thereby jeop- 
ardize my young cousin would effectually 
deter me. I assured the tempestuous fellow 
that his secret was safe with me, and after a 
few moments we parted, with a great show 
of politeness on both sides. I was glad to 
have him go. 


104 the statesmen snowbound 

“Again back in my seat my reflections 
were anything but pleasing. It was harrow- 
ing to think of Charlie Robson so completely 
in the power of these desperadoes, his prob- 
able fate, and the grief of his family and 
friends. And what could I do to save him? 
My hands were completely tied. 

“The Villasante family and I were under 
the same roof, all of us being at the Arling- 
ton, but I hoped to avoid seeing them. Cer- 
tainly, after my talk with Manuel, a meeting 
would be anything but agreeable. With these 
and a thousand other perplexing thoughts 
I left the House, hailed a cab, and was hur- 
ried to my hotel. 

“ While dressing for dinner there came a 
discreet knock at the door, and Manuel Vil- 
lasante glided in. 

“ I was distinctly annoyed. 

“ ‘ Pardon this intrusion, Senor,’ he said 
courteously, ‘ also what I may have said to 
you this afternoon. I was excited — dis- 
tressed — wounded to the heart! Perhaps I 
forgot myself. Let us forget it all, and be 
good friends once more,’ and he held out his 
hand with a smile. I took it. There was 
something very winning about the fellow, 
and he made me feel sorry and ashamed. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 105 

Somehow all the blame shifted over to me. 
We shook hands warmly. 

“ ‘ Now,’ he said, ‘ you are the bon comrade 
I knew at Saratoga. Let it always be so. 



My father and sister are waiting below and 
long to see you. Perhaps you will dine with 
us? We will consider ourselves fortunate.’ 
We went down to the parlors and found 


io6 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


Mercedes and her father. She was as beau- 
tiful as ever, and the old fellow was the same 
courtly, polished man of the world as of 
yore; a little grayer and more rat-like, per- 
haps, but showing no other signs of advanc- 



ing age. Mercedes was a trifle more plump 
than when I last saw her, but not unbecom- 
ingly so. What a magnificent creature she 
was ! 

“ My Cuban friends had much to say 
about their life in New York, the many flat- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 107 

tering attentions received from friends and 
acquaintances, the opera, the shops, and other 
delights of metropolitan life. The Senorita 
said she preferred New York to Paris; so 
did her papa and brother. They loved 
America and everything American. 

“ The dinner was a delight. Afterward we 
went to the theatre. The excitement in the 
streets did not escape the notice of the Cu- 
bans. Nor did the flag of Cuba Libre picked 
out in electric lights over the entrance of a 
restaurant near the theatre, nor other signifi- 
cant sights and sounds. But they warily held 
their peace. I looked for some show of feel- 
ing, but there was none. A tete-a-tete with 
Mercedes was out of the question, and for 
this I fervently thanked the gods! There 
was no telling the havoc that bewitching face 
might have wrought. Principles, opinions, 
and theories might have withered and fallen 
utterly consumed beneath the fire of those ar- 
dent glances and the magic of that caressing 
voice ! So it was all for the best. 

“After the play there was supper, and 
then we returned to the hotel. Parting with 
the Senorita at the elevator, not without a 
tender pressure of her jeweled fingers, — ah 
me! — I proposed to the father and son that 


io8 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


we go to my club, a few staggers away. They 
consented and we ambled leisurely along, the 
streets now quite deserted. The night was 
fine; clear, and unusually warm for the sea- 
son. We moved along silently, enjoying our 
cigars; at peace with ourselves and all the 
world. As we approached H Street I was 
roughly seized by the collar, a gag thrust 
into my mouth, and turning in amazement 
was felled by a terrible blow from a cane — 
Papa Villasante’s cane ! While on the pave- 
ment, stunned and bleeding, blows and kicks 
were rained upon my face and shoulders by 
the pair, who were evidently bent upon kill- 
ing me. Then Manuel drew a long, deadly 
looking knife ! I caught its hideous gleam 
in the semi-light as it was about to descend, 
and then I lost consciousness I 

“ An interested and amused group sur- 
rounded me when I opened my eyes and real- 
ized that the end was not yet. Hillis, of 
Kentucky, Campbell, of Ohio, Reyburn, of 
Texas, and many others were grouped about 
my desk in mock solemnity. A loud laugh 
arose as I staggered to my feet; for I alone, 
of a vast gathering, had slept soundly 
through one of the most exciting debates in 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 109 

parliamentary history ! Through it all — the 
battle raging around me, and the House 
swept as by a great storm. Through it all, 
yea, even unto the adjournment ! ” 

“A very pretty tale, and one to be remem- 
bered,” observed Colonel Manysnifters 
thoughtfully. I never had an adventure 
like that, because I am awfully careful about 
what I eat and drink, and I roost at chicken- 
time. There’s no telling what will happen to 
a man when he violates Nature’s laws. 
Night is made for sleep, and the three hours 
before midnight count for more than all the 
rest.” 

“And yet. Colonel,” remonstrated Van 
Rensselaer, “ by your own admission just 
now ” 

“You mean my outing with the ‘ Jewels,’ I 
suppose. That, my friend, is the solitary ex- 
ception that proves the rule. That little ad- 
venture simply confirmed yours truly in his 
belief of the old maxim learned at Mammy’s 
knee, that 

“ ‘ Early to bed and early to rise, 

Makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise! ’ 

I may misquote, but it will do. Old Sol has 
scarce seemed to illumine the Western heav- 


no THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


ens ere I seek my humble couch. And yet I 
do not pose as a saint. But stop! If I do 
not greatly err, the junior Senator from Mas- 
sachusetts seems restless and eager-eyed. I 
think he would like to take the floor. I know 
the signs, having often observed just such a 
readiness in many a good man before.” 

Senator Wendell, blushing, denied the 
charge, but when urged by all present re- 
sponded gamely. 

“ I really think I have no story to tell that 
would interest you. My life has been cast 
upon very hum-drum matter-of-fact lines, and 
I can recall no startling incident. In my na- 
tive town there is a shop-keeper who, when 
he is out of any article called for, tells his cus- 
tomers to wait a moment while he sends the 
boy over to the warehouse, — the ‘ ware- 
house ’ being the larger and more prosperous 
establishment of a rival just around the cor- 
ner, — and the boy never returns empty- 
handed. I shall have to imitate my worthy 
friend; so pardon me just a moment.” And 
the Senator left us and went to his room. 
He soon returned with some papers. 

“ I am, as perhaps you know, connected 

with the Magazine, and this is one of 

the many manuscripts that reach our office 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND iii 


every day. These things, with a very few ex- 
ceptions, are promptly returned to their au- 
thors — provided, of course, that sufficient 
postage for that purpose is enclosed. This 
particular effort is as yet under advisement. 
Perhaps the tale will interest you. It is 
called ‘The Creaking of the Stairs,’ and is 
rather out of the ordinary. You may fancy 


VIII 


SENATOR WENDELL READS “ THE CREAK> 
ING OF THE stairs” 

“ After four years of luxury at the Capital 
there came a most disastrous change in the 
Administration and I lost my rather exalted 
position under the government. This was 
all the greater shock, for I had cherished 
the comforting idea that I was protected 
to some extent by the Civil Service law. 
However, when I recovered from the first ef- 
fects of the blow I looked the situation 
squarely in the face, and was content with 
a stray crumb which fell from the opposi- 
tion table. I had still some influence to com- 
mand, and after superhuman exertion man- 
aged to secure a twelve-hundred-dollar clerk- 
ship. 

“ My wife, always cheerful under the most 
trying circumstances, was fully equal to this 
occasion. 

“ ‘Well, my love,’ said she, ‘of course we 
must give up everything here, and that will 

II2 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 113 

be a little trying for a while, I’ll admit, but 
we should be thankful that you are not 
thrown out altogether,’ adding with a tinge 
of melancholy, ‘ I don’t think, though, that 
I could bear to live in Washington after the 
change. Suppose we try A for a while.’ 

“ A is over in Maryland, about six 

miles from town, and very convenient trains 
are run between the two places. One can live 
quite comfortably there for very little, so my 
wife’s suggestion was quickly adopted. 

“ ‘ It reminds me of dear, dear Salem,’ 
she said some weeks later, ‘ and rents are so 
cheap. Think of the ridiculously small 
price we pay for this house.’ 

“ ‘ Suspiciously small, you mean,’ said I 
gloomily, not at all reconciled to my wife’s 
choice of abode. But as my feeble protest 
was treated with silence I held my peace. 
‘Anything for a quiet life’ has ever been a 
favorite conceit with me. 

“ Mrs. Float had taken an old-fashioned 
house in Queen Anne Street, large enough 
for a family of twenty persons. Now, as 
my household consisted of only my wife, her 
unmarried sister, and myself, I could not un- 
derstand what was wanted with such capa- 
cious quarters. But I had no say in the mat- 


1 14 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ter. My wife fancied the house, it seemed 
to me, on account of its colonial air, wide 
halls, huge high-ceilinged rooms, and general 
lack of modern improvements. 

“ I never liked the house in Queen Anne 
Street, though this aversion was apparently 
unreasonable, for we were cosy enough after 
the throes of moving in and settling down 
were over. But it struck me from the start 
that there was something decidedly uncanny 
about the place, and a vague feeling of un- 
easiness became very keenly defined in me 
whenever I heard the creaking of the stairs. 

“The stairs throughout the house had an 
infernal habit of creaking — one after another 
— as if somebody was coming up or down. 
At first I thought it was the rats that in- 
fested the old mansion in legions ; but I aban- 
doned this idea after a few experiments 
which proved conclusively that the creaking 
sounds could only be made by a person or 
thing quite as heavy, if not heavier, than 
myself — then tipping the beam at one hun- 
dred and eighty pounds. 

“ In the course of time I became person- 
ally acquainted with each stair in the Queen 
Anne Street house, and especially with those 
in the main flight. Business, or pleasure. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 115 

often compelled me to keep late hours, and 
on such occasions, on arriving home, I would 
naturally try to reach my room as quietly as 
possible. With my shoes in my hand, and 
by a series of agile leaps from one less noisy 
stair to another, I usually succeeded in attain- 
ing the upper part of the house without much 
disturbance. 

“The annoying sounds occurred at all 
hours, but were of course more noticeable at 
night. I am a light sleeper, and was in- 
variably awakened by them, and this, with 
the loud ticking of a grandfather’s clock on 
the first landing, usually banished further 
slumber, and I would arise at daybreak, 
weary and unrefreshed. The clock was finally 
stopped, after a heated discussion with 
my wife and sister-in-law, who regarded it 
with something akin to reverence. It was in- 
deed a venerable affair. I hated the thing 
even when it was quiet, for it reminded me of 
a coffin set on end, and I would pass it in 
the dark hurriedly, and with averted face. 

“ I do not think that either my wife or 
sister-in-law ever heard the creaking of the 
stairs. If they did they never said anything 
about it to me. For my part, I was silent, 
because I did not want to be laughed at by 


ii6 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


my womenkind, and I knew also that if the 
matter reached the ear of our only servant 
she would immediately take her departure. 

Help is not easy to obtain in A , and if 

it were known that our home was haunted 
we would be obliged to do all our own drudg- 
ery in future. 

“ This state of things continued nearly a 
year. Occasionally, for a week or two at a 
time, the creaking stopped altogether. In 
these intervals I slept well and improved in 
every way, but when the disturbances re- 
turned I became more depressed and gloomy 
than ever. My health was wretched at the 
time, and I felt that I was gradually break- 
ing down. 

“At last I determined to call upon my 
landlord. Doctor Matthai, and lay the trouble 
before him. He was born and raised in 
the house, and I thought it probable that he 
could solve the mystery, or at least suggest a 
remedy. Doctor Matthai lived just across 
the way in a quaint cottage covered with 
great climbing roses and set well back in a 
prim garden, with hollyhocks and hedges of 
box, and an ancient sun-dial which was my 
wife’s never-ending delight. 

“The doctor was a short, thick-set, heavily 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 117 

whiskered gentleman, and looked more like 
a retired man of affairs than the prosy recluse 
that he was ; but he had long since ceased to 
take any active interest in life, and gave him- 
self up entirely to scientific study and research 
of a more or less abstruse nature. A useless 
sort of existence, it seemed to me, as mankind 
was never destined, nor intended, to reap the 
benefits of his labor. His sister kept house 
for him, and had full charge of all his busi- 
ness matters. The doctor owned consider- 
able property, and Miss Regina proved a 
capable manager; as a collector of rents she 
certainly had no equal — to that I can cheer- 
fully testify. She was not popular in A , 

nor was her eccentric brother. Unpleasant 
tales were told about Matthai. I never knew 
all the particulars, but they had something 
to do with the murder of a slave in ante- 
bellum days. The townsfolk were extremely 
reticent on the subject, and very mercifully 
so, for, as I have since learned, the trag- 
edy occurred in our house in Queen Anne 
Street. 

“ I found Doctor Matthai in his library, 
immersed in study as usual; quite out of the 
world so far as every-day happenings were 
concerned. He greeted me rather coldly. 


ii8 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


“ ‘ I beg your pardon,’ said I, ‘ but I have 
come to see you about the house.’ 

“ ‘ My sister, Regina ’ he interrupted. 

“ ‘ Yes, I know,’ said I, ‘ but this visit is to 
you, though I fear you will look upon what 
I have to say as very nonsensical and far- 
fetched. To me, though, it is a very serious 
matter.’ 

“I dwelt at length upon the grievance; 
putting it as strongly as possible. The doc- 
tor listened attentively, and when I con- 
cluded, laughed and said, ‘ I believe you fully 
as to the creaking of the stairs, but you at- 
tach entirely too much importance to it. 
The noise results, I have no doubt, from per- 
fectly natural causes. You must remember, 
sir, that the stairways are very old indeed, 
any jar from the movement of persons in 
other parts of the house, the action of the 
wind against the walls, or the rotting or 
shrinking of wood from age will produce 
just such sounds as you have heard. I quite 
fail, therefore, to see any mystery about it.’ 

“ ‘ However,’ he continued, ‘ I will send a 
carpenter around who will probably set things 
to rights; that is, if the expense be not too 
great. I am not prepared to put a large sum 
of money on the house; and stairways, you 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 119 

know, are costly arrangements at best.’ I 
fully agreed with him. 

“ ‘ By the way,’ said he, blinking at me 
through his thick glasses, ‘there is just a bit 
of nervousness in your make-up, isn’t there? 
“ A little off your feed,” as Regina says; liver 
out of shape — something of that sort, eh?’ 
I confessed that that was just it. I frankly 
told him that I was not only a nervous man, 
but a miserably sick and frightened one to 
boot. He did not offer to prescribe for me, 
and after some moments of silence I judged 
that he considered our interview at an end. 
I arose to go, but on leaving the room fired 
a parting shot, which, to my surprise, proved 
a telling one. 

” ‘ Doctor,’ said I, ‘ before you send the 
man to make repairs I would like you to hear 
the creaking of the stairs for yourself — just 
as a matter of curiosity. My wife and sis- 
ter-in-law are going up to the old home in a 
few days. Suppose you come over and spend 
a night with me while they are away.’ 

“The doctor chuckled, ‘You are a queer 
fellow, Mr. Float; a queer fellow, and no 
mistake. You say you are run down, played 
out, can’t sleep. Take more exercise, sir; 
give up late suppers, drink less, stop smoking. 


120 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


A man leading the sedentary life you do 
should take more care of himself. I am 
older than you are, and a physician. My 
advice may be worth something. As to com- 
ing over and staying with you, I don’t see 
that there is anything in that. It seems ab- 
surd, quite so ; but nevertheless, I will humor 
you. Let me know when to come, but on no 
account say anything of this to my sister. 
My absence would greatly alarm her. I have 
not been out of this house after dark for 
over forty years I ’ 

“With this strange assertion our conver- 
sation closed. 

“ The following Monday my wife and siS' 
ter-in-law left for Salem, and Doctor Mat- 
thai promised to be with me on Wednesday 
night. When I found myself alone in the 
house I resolved to put into execution an idea 
which struck me with much force. I thought 
it very likely that I would find out whether 
the creaking of the stairs was of human or 
supernatural origin; and this I hoped would 
be made plain before the doctor came over. 
That the noise was due to natural causes, as 
he so adroitly suggested, I, in my heart of 
hearts, could not bring myself to believe. 
Poe is my favorite author, and he perhaps 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 121 


could have suggested a solution of the per- 
plexities that beset me; but no inspiration 
came to me .from the oft-read pages which I 
turned over and over in despair. 

“ My plan was a simple one, and it was 
odd that I had not thought of it before; but 
after all, it would have been impracticable as 
long as my wife and sister-in-law were in the 
house. 

“ On Tuesday night I sprinkled a thin 
layer of flour over each stair, from basement 
to attic. This was a task of an hour or so, 
but I felt that I did not labor in vain. Then 
I turned in and slept soundly until midnight, 
when I was awakened as usual by the creak- 
ing of the stairs. It is hardly necessary to 
say that I remained in bed, making no at- 
tempt whatever to investigate, but valiantly 
drew up the covers over my head, fully ex- 
pecting every moment to feel the weight of 
a dreadful hand upon some portion of my 
body. 

“ In the morning, my bravery having re- 
turned, I found upon each stair the clear im- 
pression of a naked human foot I The foot- 
prints were very large, and were made in 
ascent. There was no trace of them beyond 
the third floor, for the flour on the stairway 


122 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 



“ — Upon each stair the clear impres- 
sion of a naked human Foot!” 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 123 

to the attic above had been partially brushed 
off as by a trailing garment. The attic was 
perfectly bare, affording no hiding-place for 
man or beast, as there were no closets, presses 
or means of concealment of any kind. My 
visitor may have gone out by way of the 
trap door in the loft which opened upon the 
roof, but it was securely bolted on the inside, 
and the bolts, which were caked with rust in 
their fastenings, had evidently not been 
pulled out for years. I made a thorough 
search of the attic, the loft, and the upper 
floors of the house, but failed utterly to dis- 
cover any further trace of the prowler. 

“ I hardly knew whether to feel relieved or 
not when I learned that the unknown was no 
ghost after all. Certainly not the vapory, 
unsubstantial kind that flit through mansions 
such as mine. Here was a being of solid, 
nay, gigantic proportions, as the creakings 
and huge footprints fully attested. I knew, 
though, that I would assuredly have the best 
of Dr. Matthai should he (or she) of the 
massive feet see fit to appear on the coming 
night. 

“After carefully sweeping up the floor I 
shut up the house, and resolved to keep my 
own counsel. I breakfasted in Washington 


124 the statesmen snowbound 

that morning, having, for obvious reasons, 
given our servant a holiday, and returned to 

A about five in the afternoon; dining 

later with Doctor Matthai, who met me at 
the station and very hospitably insisted upon 
my going home with him. Shortly after 
dinner I bade my host and his sister good- 
evening and went over to my own deserted 
dwelling. An hour or so after. Doctor Mat- 
thai came in. Both of us were armed, and 
I thought it singular that the doctor, who ap- 
peared to treat the whole affair as a joke, 
should have taken that precaution. We sat 
by the open fire in my dining-room, smoking; 
the doctor lingering somewhat mournfully 

upon the departed greatness of A which, 

it seems, had once been a town of consider- 
able social and commercial importance. With 
reminiscence and ancedote the hours sped by, 
and it was nearly midnight when we retired. 

“ The doctor, sharing my bed, asked me 
to arouse him if I heard anything during 
the night. I slept fairly well until the clock 
on the mantel struck two, when I awoke with 
a start. Complete silence reigned, and I 
rolled over again for another nap. As I did 
so I heard a faint creaking sound on the up- 
per stair! 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 125 

“‘Ah/ thought I, ‘it is coming down.’ 
And so it proved. I gave the doctor a vio- 
lent nudge. He opened his eyes and looked 
at me stupidly. 

“ ‘ Hush/ I whispered, ‘ don’t you hear it? 
Don’t you hear it? ’ 

“‘Yes, I do,’ replied he, sitting up and 
peering into the darkness. 

“Creak! Creak! Creak! Nearer ‘It’ 
came, and our floor was reached. Clutching 
his revolver. Doctor Matthai sprang out of 
bed and ran to the door. Then a horrible 
scream of terror and anguish rang through 
the house. An invisible hand seemed to drag 
the unfortunate man out of the room. There 
was a brief, desperate struggle on the land- 
ing, the creature went heavily down the 
stairs, and the street door shut with a bang! 

“ When I recovered to some extent from 
the panic of fear and trembling into which I 
was thrown by this awful and inexplicable 
occurrence, I hurriedly dressed, and seeing 
nothing of the doctor, went over at once to 
his cottage. Remembering his caution about 
Miss Regina, and not wishing to otherwise 
frighten her, I ran around to the alley at 
the rear of the grounds and climbed over the 
fence. The doctor’s library and bedroom 


126 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


were adjoining apartments on the ground 
floor, and the long, low windows of each 
opened upon a porch at the side of the house. 
All the blinds were closed and securely fas- 
tened. I knocked on them several times, but 
there was no response, though a dim light 
was burning in the library. I heard some 
one moving inside, and for a moment I 
thought I heard the sound of voices in angry 
argument or expostulation. But of this I 
cannot be positive. I remained on the porch 
at least ten minutes, vainly trying to get into 
the rooms, then I gave it up and left the 
premises. 

“ My state of mind after the harrowing 
events of the night was indeed distressing. 
I did not — could not — return home. I have 
an indistinct recollection of walking swiftly 
up and down the deserted streets and far out 
into the country. Daylight found me sev- 
eral miles from the town; hatless, wild-eyed, 
a sorry spectacle, at whom one or two farm- 
ers, on their way to early market, gazed in 
amazement. When I turned back, the sun 
was high in the heavens. I went again to 
Doctor Matthai’s. A crowd stood about the 
door. I was rudely seized and placed under 
arrest, charged — oh, my God ! — with the 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 127 

murder of Doctor Matthai! The shock- 
ingly mutilated body had just been found in 
the hallway of the old house in Queen Anne 
Street! * * * j innocent, innocent! 

Weeks — they seem centuries — pass, and I 
yet await trial. * * * 

“ George Delwyn Float, the writer of the 
above remarkable story, was hanged in the 

jailyard at A for the wilful and brutal 

murder of Doctor Ambrose Matthai, a re- 
tired practitioner of that place. The plea of 
insanity, so strongly urged by the prisoner’s 
counsel, proved unavailing, and the con- 
demned man paid the penalty for his crime 
on Friday morning last.” 

“You know what a story like that de- 
mands, I suppose,” said Colonel Manysnif- 
ters, reaching for the button; “ and as I seem 
to be the self-appointed chairman here, I will 
now call upon the gentleman from Michigan 
for a few remarks. I am sure that he will 
not disappoint us. Senator, we are waiting 
for you, sir.” 

“ Very well,” said Senator Hammond, 
“ since there seems to be no escape, I will do 
the best I can.” 


IX 

SENATOR Hammond’s experience 

“The facts that I am about to relate oc- 
curred many years ago while I was on a visit 
to relatives in Charleston, South Carolina. 
The old house where I was a guest stands on 
the Battery, and with its beautiful gardens is 
still one of the show places of the city. 

“ It was on a warm Sunday afternoon, and 
I found myself alone in the house, the family 
and servants at church, and a brooding still- 
ness that presaged the approach of a storm, 
settling over all. At that time I was a 
dreamy, romantic, long-haired youth with all 
sorts of notions about the artistic tempera- 
ment, carelessness in dress, and painting 
miniatures for a living. They told me I had 
some talent, and I believed them thoroughly. 

“ I had wandered in from the garden, my 
hands full of flowers for the vases in the li- 
brary, when a sudden gust of wind tore 
through the wide hall, the door shut with a 
bang, and I found myself face to face with 
my ancestors. Grim gentlemen with somber 
128 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 129 

faces, simpering almond-eyed beauties in 
cobwebby laces; and in the place of honor a 
frowning hag, whose wrinkles even the flat- 
tering painter dare not hide. Time had 
added to the sallowness of her complexion, 
and certain cracks in the canvas but intensified 
her ugliness. Artistic cracks they were, too, 
for they fell in just the right places, and 
heightened the general effect amazingly. 

“ Doubtless it was from this person, 
thought I, that I inherited my rather nasty 
temper and other moral and mental infirmi- 
ties. I gazed at the lady long and earnestly, 
for as an ardent believer in heredity I felt 
that here I had the key to a problem which 
often worried me. I resolved to look her up 
at once in the family records. 

“ But I was saved that trouble. 

“ ‘ Young man,’ piped a high, thin voice 
close at hand, ‘ in my day it was considered 
boorish in the extreme to stare at any one as 
you are now doing. No gentleman, I am 
sure, would have been guilty of such a thing. 
But these modern manners, and modern ways 
are quite beyond me. Perhaps it is the mode 
nowadays to ape the rude youths who hung 
about the London playhouses in my time. 
N’est’ce pas?’ 


130 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

“ I felt decidedly uncomfortable. 

“ ‘ Pardon me, I ’ 

“ ‘ Stop ! ’ said the voice, which came from 
the ugly one in the corner, ‘ stop, if you 
please ! Don’t attempt to apologize or ex- 
plain; it takes too much time, and time with 
me is very precious just now. You see,’ she 
added in milder tones, ‘ when one is allowed 
to have a say only once in a century, and but 
fifteen minutes at that, one naturally wants 
to do all the talking. That’s perfectly rea- 
sonable, is it not? So keep quiet, my dear, 
and listen to me. No interruptions, if you 
please. 

“ ‘ I am Margaret Holmead, your blood 
relation. You have the Holmead figure, 
and coloring, and I knew you were one 
of us as soon as you came into the room. 
Well. 

“ ‘ Do you see that hussy in the ruff over 
there? That is Mary Darragh, Lady Benne- 
ville, my bitterest, bitterest enemy ! See 
how she smiles at me ! Deceitful minx ! 
When I tell you all you will surely take her 
out of the room and fling her into the fire! 
For sixty years she has hung there taunting 
me. They brought her down from the hall 
above just to spite me, I do believe. ’Twas 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 131 

done in your grandfather’s time. He was 
a Benneville all over, and of course had no 
use for me. So for sixty long years I have 
had to face Mary Darragh and submit to 
her impertinence, and I tell you I am sick of 
it! Why do I hate her? For a very good 
reason, sir. Let me tell you about it. 

“ ‘ My troubles began at the Duchess of 
Bolton’s ball, long before I came to this 
dreadful America. The King was there, and 
Lady Morley-Frere. If my voice trembles 
as I mention their names, it is with rage I 
assure you, and no wonder — for God knows 
that between them they played me a scurvy 
trick! Yes, these two were there, and Lord 
Benneville, my cousin, the handsomest man 
in all England — indeed, in all the world, I 
thought. He was tall and slight, with wavy 
hair, light brown, almost golden, in the sun- 
light. His eyes were gray, a lovely shade, 
though those who hated him swore ’twas 
green. A clever supple swordsman, and to 
the fore in all the rough games that men de- 
light in. His face was very winsome, yet of- 
ten swept by varying moods. I have seen it 
hard and stern, and again alight with the 
keenest appreciation of one of my Lord Ken- 
neth’s witticisms. And, too, I have seen it 


132 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

tender, pleading, and melancholy almost unto 
tears. Ah me! 

“‘Lord Kenneth, older by several years; 
taller, darker, soured by a great disappoint- 
ment — so ’twas said — loved my Lord Benne- 
ville with all the affection his selfish nature 
allowed. And Benneville returned it frankly, 
in his open boyish fashion. They were 
ever together, and their adventures and dar- 
ing escapades more than once nearly threw 
them into serious trouble. But what cared 
they, crack-brained as they were? Why, on 
one pitch dark night, masked and mounted, 
my Lords Kenneth and Benneville held up the 
Royal Mail, frightened the passengers al- 
most to death, and alarmed the whole coun- 
tryside; sober folk who thought the Devil 
himself was abroad! But the King only 
smiled indulgently, and nothing came of it 
save much gossip at court. They were merry 
days for all of us; balls and routs, and par- 
ties on the river, the King so handsome and 
debonair, and the world so bright with sun- 
shine and happiness. Youth, my dear, is a 
great thing; what is there to compare with it? 

“ ‘ But I am losing time. I must hasten 
to the ball at the Duchess’s. ’Tis hardly 
fair, this terrible silence they have imposed 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 133 

upon me. A century at a stretch — -think of 
it ! 

“ ‘ I looked my best that night, at least 
every one said I did, and I had my mirror to 
tell me so too. My gown was a wondrous 
figured thing from the Indies — a soft, cling- 
ing, silken stuff that became me well. Roy- 
alty sent an armful of great purple blossoms, 
strange in shape and smelling ravishingly. 
My clever Prue spent hours on my hair, with 
the little Lafitte for the finishing touches. 
My father was waiting below, and his eyes 
shone with joy when he saw me; for he was 
proud, very proud of his only daughter. 

“ ‘ The King patted my cheek and said such 
pretty things, and kissed me. Little did I 
know what was to follow ! Child, beware of 
Princes and princely favor, for therein lies 
destruction ! 

“‘The night' wore on, and the affair be- 
came gayer and more crowded. I had been 
much with my Lord Benneville, who seemed 
quiet and preoccupied, yet very tender and 
sweet withal. At that time there existed an 
understanding between Arthur and me. 
Nothing announced as yet, for my lover 
feared the King. His Majesty, of late, had 
been singularly attentive to me. In fact, so 


134 the statesmen snowbound 

marked had this been that the Queen’s man- 
ner toward me became more distant every 
day; thanks to Lady Morley-Frere, Mary 
Darragh, and the other busybodies who had 
the royal ear, and hated me. If I coquetted 
with the King ’twas but to see my heart’s real 
master frown, and his face grow wan and 
sad, for by those very tokens I knew that he 
loved me. 

“ ‘ As I say, something was wrong with my 
dear Lord that night, and after I had danced 
twice with the King, and once with the old 
Duke, Benneville came to claim me. He took 
me away from the throng into a little gilded 
room with scattered tables for cards, and 
there we were quite to ourselves. 

“‘“My darling,” said he, “the King has 
honored me with a very special mission. His 
Majesty deems that of all his loving subjects 
I am the best fitted for this most important 
business,” and my lover’s voice hoarsened, 
and there was hatred in his face. “ I start 
at once for that far city where the Grand 
Turk holds court. It is a long journey, and 
a hard; and who can say when I will return? 
I have feared this all along, sweetest one, 
and I have tried in vain to put off the evil 
day; and yet, by Heaven, I will thwart him! 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 135 

You shall be Lady Benneville before sun- 
rise! And you will, dearest? ” 

“ ‘ He took me in his arms. I was trem- 
bling from head to foot; fearful, yet joyous. 
Mine is an emotional nature. But his next 
words sent a chill through me. 

“‘“Lady Morley-Frere has promised to 
help me. You must leave the palace with 
her, and drive straight to St. Stephens-in-the- 
Fields. She has arranged it all, like the 
dear, clever woman she is. As for me, I am 
in Kenneth’s hands.” 

“‘“No! No!” I cried out suddenly, 
quite aghast. “ Not Lord Kenneth ! O God, 
not that man ! ” I feared and hated Robert, 
Lord Kenneth, and knew well that he had no 
liking for me. “Not Lord Kenneth,” I 
urged. 

“ ‘ “ He is my friend,” said Lord Benne- 
ville gravely. 

“ ‘ So what more could I say? 

“‘“Your father has gone home, tired 
out,” he said, by all this frivolity, but Lady 
Morley-Frere will keep you to the end; and 
then to Morley House with her. That at 
least is what she told him, and he seemed 
well content.” 

“ ‘ I nodded passively, but wondered, know- 


136 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ing as I did my father’s especial detestation 
for Lady Morley-Frere. Why, they scarcely 
spoke ! But of course my Arthur knew. 
There was no further time for parley, how- 
ever, as several of the guests, upon gaming 
bent, invaded our retreat, and we returned to 
the ballroom. 

“ ‘ Old Lady Morley-Frere gave me a 
meaning look when we met at supper, but 
had only the opportunity to whisper in passing, 
“At two o’clock; the little door under the 
green lanthorn.” I knew the place well, hav- 
ing often taken chair there when the crowd 
pressed in front. Two o’clock came, and we 
succeeded in leaving the palace quite unob- 
served, thanks to the private door. It was 
bitterly cold and snowing hard, and we had 
scarce left the court-yard when I fell to shiver- 
ing, my teeth clicking like castanets. Lady 
Morley-Frere, seeing my plight, held out a 
silver flask, and from the depths of her cloak 
growled out, “ Drink, drink! ’Twill set you 
right in a trice. ’Tis hot and spiced, and 
good for you.” I obeyed her. I had hardly 
swallowed it before a delicious warmth stole 
over me, and every nerve tingled with pleas- 
ure. I sank back into the cushions revived 
— exalted! Then I fell asleep. Oh, the 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 137 

shame of it! The shame of it! A thousand 
curses upon a tipple that caused such woe ! 
May eternal perdition be the portion of the 
giver ! 

“ ‘ Strong arms enfolded me when I came 
to my senses. My Benneville, I was sure of 
it ! 

“ ‘ Darling,” I murmured, still feeling 
strangely, “ I have come to you. Yes, out 
of the storm have I come to you ! Like a 
weary, drenched bird, I seek rest in thy dear 
arms ! Kiss me, my dearest, kiss me ! ” 

“ ‘ He kissed me again and again 
How can I go on? . . . There was a 

sound of smothered laughter — the irritating 
laugh of a woman I hated. . . . His 

face was close to mine. ... I opened 
my eyes. . . . Oh, God! It was the 

King! 

“ ‘ In my rage and confusion I flung him 
from me, and fell, half-fainting, to the floor. 
Then I heard my Lord Benneville say 
brokenly, as one crushed by awful trouble, 
“ Your Majesty is right. I pray you forgive 
my harsh words of yesterday. Fool, fool 
that I am to have been so tricked! O my 
Liege, my Liege, death would have been far 
preferable to this ! ” And then my dear 


138 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

Lord, sobbing, went out into the gray dawn, 
and out of my life forever ! 

“ ‘ They took me from the King’s chamber, 
and revived by the sharp air in the street I 
managed to grope my way to my father’s 
house.* To him I told nothing, for he was 
proud of me, and should I have killed him? 
Yet he was much perplexed at my determina- 
tion, for I never showed my face at court 
again ! ’ 

“ My relative’s voice, growing weaker 
every moment, flickered and died out in a hiss- 
ing whisper just as the silver chime over the 
mantel proclaimed that her time was up. 
Then I must have awakened. 

“ It may have been a dream, but so im- 
pressed was I by the old lady’s story that all 
the rest of the week I searched for further 
light upon it. Into old carven chests I dived, 
opening package after package of mouldy 
papers. In the attic trunks and boxes were 
rifled, until at last, about to give up in de- 
spair, I found in an old desk a letter. It 
was in French with the Benneville crest and 
seal, brown with age, and by no means easy 
to decipher. The place of writing, and the 
date, quite beyond human ken, so frayed and 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 139 

stained was the upper margin. Freely trans- 
lated, the letter read: 


“‘My Dear Old Bobby: 

“ ‘ Here we are, safe and sound. And 
what can I say to you, friend of friends? 
This last scrape was the worst of all; 
was it not? Worse by far than the af- 
fairs with the little Italian, or the fat 
Princess, eh, Bobby, my boy? Our 
heartfelt thanks to his Majesty, God 
bless him ! and to Lady Morley-Frere, 
and to your dear self — our eternal love ! 
Oh, Bobby, the thought of marrying 
that sour-visaged cousin of mine makes 
me ill, even now! And yet — at the 
time, before I told you — I felt myself 
slowly drifting into it. The ground 
seemed to be slipping from under my 
feet, as it were. I felt wholly lost — 
trapped, by Jove! She was very deter- 
mined. We are here with the Ambas- 
sador until the affair blows over. My 
sweetest Mary joins me in love. 

“ ‘ Ever your affectionate friend, 

“ ‘ Benneville.^ 


“ A dirty low trick of that fellow Benne- 


140 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ville, I must say,” said Colonel Manysnifters 
disgustedly. “That sort of thing could 
never have happened in these days. Did they 
ever move the Darragh woman’s picture out 
of the room?” he asked. 

“ I believe so — some years later,” replied 
Senator Hammond dryly; “in fact, they 
were all moved out, and hurried into the up- 
country for safe-keeping. That was about 
the time that we boys in blue were making it 
particularly unpleasant for the residents of 
that part of the State. I never knew the fate 
of the collection. I have not been South since 
’64.” 

“Well, anyway. Senator,” said the Col- 
onel, “ I see you have got a line on your an- 
cestors, and that’s more than many of us can 
say. I’ve never bothered about mine. De- 
scendants are bad enough. My forebears 
came over to America years ago as ballast — 
didn’t have any names, just numbers, mostly 
thirteen and twenty-three ! That old lady 
you were telling us about certainly got it in 
the neck, and I hope that she will even mat- 
ters up in the other world. If she hasn’t, by 
the time I get there I will do all I can to help 
her out — always assuming, of course, that I 
am going to the same place. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 141 

“ Now, if you gentlemen of the press will 
kindly step to the front and favor us with 
your yarns we will all be mightily obliged to 
you. I have heard nothing from any of you 
since ’way back in the dining-car. Some ob- 
servation about the moon, I believe.” 

Mr. Callahan, the dean of the corps, 
blushed slightly. 

“ It was O’Brien who got off the spiel 
about the moon. I have outgrown that sort 
of thing. In my younger days I might have 
— well, we won’t be hard on O’Brien. He is 
not a bad fellow at heart, and I believe he 
will try to do better in future. Now, as it 
seems to be my turn at word-painting, I am 
going to tell you of an affair that occurred in 
Washington a few years ago. It has to do 
with a well-known society girl, an irascible 
father, a bad Chinaman, and a high collar — 
seemingly irreconcilable elements. I’ll admit, 
but I will do my best to mix ’em in. I had the 
story in sections from most of the parties 
concerned; a wide acquaintance with the 
police and an intimate knowledge of the 
Chinese quarter helping out considerably. 
The odds and ends, pieced together, make, I 
hope, a hearable tale. 


X 

MR. CALLAHAN^S STORY 

“ My story begins, then, on a bright Sabbath 
afternoon in mid-autumn when Miss Janet 
Cragiemuir left her home in K Street and 
set out leisurely upon her walk to Bethany 
Church, where she revelled in her latest fad. 
She had recently taken a class in the Chinese 
Sunday-school. The go'od work began at 
three o’clock, and as it was nearly that hour, 
groups of Chinamen stood out on the side- 
walk chattering as only Celestials can. They 
greeted Miss Cragiemuir with grave cour- 
tesy when she approached, and shuffled lazily 
out of her way as she swept past. She was 
followed into the building by her three schol- 
ars, one of whom presented her with a small 
package which was accepted with some re- 
luctance. Then a brief whispered argument 
took place between the two, the Chinaman 
appearing to have decidedly the best of it, 
for he displayed his broken, yellow teeth in 
a hideous grin when his teacher turned from 
him to the other members of the class. 


142 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 143 

“ Miss Cragiemuir was attached to her 
scholars, an intelligent lot of men, speaking 
English fairly well, and at times quite elec- 
trifying her by their naive observations on 
men and things. But Ah Moy, the ugly 
fellow at the end of the form, was her espe- 
cial pride. That gorgeously clad individual 
was considered the star scholar of the school, 
and as a shining example of what Christian 
training can do for the heathen was often 
pointed out to visitors. Well, Ah Moy was 
undeniably clever, but not in just the way the 
good people of Bethany imagined. As a 
matter of fact, a more corrupt Chinaman 
had never been smuggled into America. Os- 
tensibly in the laundry business, and really 
a master workman in that line, the astute 
Chink had long since relinquished the labor 
over the tubs and ironing-board to Hop 
Wah, his silent partner. Ah Moy’s chief in- 
terest in the establishment lay in its cavern- 
ous sub-cellar, where he conducted gaming 
tables and a smoking-‘ parlor ’ with flatter- 
ing success. The gods evidently smiled upon 
him, for his den seemed to be unknown to 
the police, though they had ferreted out all 
other resorts of the kind in the city. As 
there is no ‘graft’ in Washington, and ‘the 


144 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

Finest ’ are above reproach, the idea that Ah 
Moy enjoyed police protection should be dis- 
missed with indignation. 

“ Ah Moy’s place bore an unsavory repu- 
tation even among the saffron-hued residents 
of Four-and-a-half Street, but its bland pro- 
prietor was regarded by the authorities as a 
particularly inoffensive and law-abiding speci- 
men — his high standing at Bethany proving 
a very strong card. He was also the head of 
a powerful secret society, or ‘tong,’ and 
wielded a tremendous influence in the Wash- 
ington settlement, so his countrymen dared 
not betray him. There was another, and in 
its way an equally potent reason why the 
Chinaman played so well the role of convert. 
He had fallen desperately in love with Miss 
Cragiemuir, and to the unconscious girl his 
antics were puzzling, to say the least. He 
annoyed her, too, with presents — trifles 
which she could not well refuse without a 
scene, for after much surly mumbling he 
would sulk in his corner like a spoiled child 
unless she instantly accepted his offerings. So 
jars of preserved ginger, hideous ivory im- 
ages, and trinkets of every description were 
showered upon her, much to her discomfiture. 

“ On the afternoon I speak of, Ah Moy, 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 145 

who had eclipsed all previous records for 
brilliant recitations, became decidedly uneasy 
as the benediction was being pronounced, and 
when he arose from his knees tapped Miss 
Cragiemuir gently with his fan. 

“ ‘ Can Ah Moy walk home with pletty 
lady?’ he asked in dove-like tones. 

“ Now Miss Cragiemuir’s fads were in- 
variably carried through to the last extrem- 
ity, and Ah Moy’s request, instead of embar- 
rassing her, afforded a thrill of gratification. 
She felt sure that he yearned for a fuller 
knowledge of the great truths that had been 
unfolded in the afternoon’s lesson, and she 
also felt, with some exaltation of spirit, that 
her influence over the man was being exerted 
for much good. So she nodded a pleasant 
assent to the delighted Celestial, who blushed 
and trembled with joy; and a blushing, 
trembling Chinaman is a sight for the gods I 

“ ‘ Well, Ah Moy,’ she said in her best 
manner, ‘ I hope you will think over what 
you have learned to-day, ponder it in your 
heart, and let it be a subject of prayer. I see 
a great change in you — a change for the 
better. The good seed has taken root, and 
my puny efforts will yet bear fruit in due 
season. Now next Sunday we will take up 


146 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

the wonderful story of “ Daniel in the Lion’s 
Den.” That will interest you, I am sure.’ 

“‘Ah Moy takee up anysing that Missee 
want,’ said the Chinaman gallantly. ‘ Ah 
Moy velly, velly fond of Missee. He no 
come to Slunday-school at all if teacher no 
come too ! Slunday-school is a great big 
bluff most allee time — it seem to me. Hum- 
bug, eh? ’ 

“This was a staggerer. 

“ ‘ Why, Ah Moy, how perfectly shock- 
ing! “Bluff!” “Humbug!” Where did 
you learn such words? Oh, Ah Moy, you 
don’t know how much you distress me ! I 
thought better of you than that; I did in- 
deed! What do you come to the school for? 
Isn’t it because you want to be a better man, 
and to lead a good and useful life? I cer- 
tainly thought so. I am disappointed in you. 
Ah Moy, more than I can say. This is 
dreadful ! ’ 

“ ‘ Ah Moy rich,’ he continued, unnotic- 
ing ; ‘ got plenty money, habee heap house — 
one in ’Flisco, one in San Looey, one here 
in this city. He want get mallied ; lovee gal, 
’flaid tell her. ’Flaid makee mad. Ah Moy 
bashful ! ’ 

“‘Really?’ said Miss Cragiemuir with 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 147 

interest, wondering which of the two or three 
women at the Mission he meant, ‘ In love ! 
Oh, Ah Moy, how romantic! Who is she? 
Perhaps I can help you.’ 

“ ‘ I don’t likee say,’ replied he coyly. 

“‘How foolish. Ah Moy. Tell me — I 
will promise not to mention it — not to say a 
word to any one. Understand? ’ 

“‘Plomise?’ asked he craftily. 

“ ‘ Certainly I will promise. Don’t you 
think I can keep a secret? Lots of people 
tell me things — that’s because they trust me. 
Who do you want to marry? Ah, I believe 
I know. Isn’t it Hoi Kee? ’ 

“ ‘ No-o.’ 

“‘Oo-Chow?’ 

“ ‘ No-o.’ 

“ ‘Hoi Sing?’ 

“ ‘ No-o.’ 

“‘Well, I declare! Who on earth is it 
then ? ’ 

“ ‘Ah Moy want mallie you!^ 

“‘What?’ 

“ Miss Cragiemuir, not knowing whether to 
laugh or cry, giggled hysterically. A flush 
of rage darkened the Chinaman’s sallow fea- 
tures, and his eyes glittered with anger. Had 
the street been deserted he would have stran- 


148 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

gled her, then and there, after the pleasing 
Oriental fashion. But the time and place 
were unpropitious. 

“ ‘ Mellican gal makee fun of Ah Moy,’ 
he said gruffly. ‘ She think he joke, when 
allee time he mean velly much what he say ! ’ 

“ Then the' teacher lost her temper. 

“ ‘ How dare you say such a thing to me? 
Are you crazy? You must be! Don’t you 
ever talk to me again like that. Do you 
hear? Leave me — go away! I don’t want 
you to walk a step further with me ! Go 
home! I hope I will never, never see you 
again ! ’ and she turned her back on him in- 
dignantly. Ah Moy made no response, but 
still stuck gamely at her side. She walked 
faster; so did he, keeping right in line. For 
a square or so they hurried along. Then she 
gave it up, slowed down, and said mildly, 
‘ I am glad, of course, that you are fond of 
me. Ah Moy. I want all the members of my 
class to like me. I am trying to do a good 
part by you, and I hope some day to see you 
back in your native land leading your people 
to the light; but you have a great deal to 
learn yet. Besides,’ she added thoughtfully, 
reverting to his unlucky remark, ‘haven’t 
you a wife in China?’ 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 149 

“ ‘ I have two wifee in old countly,’ replied 
Ah Moy proudly, ‘ but I have none in ’Mel- 
llca — not a single wifee — no, not one! Ah 
Moy want ’Melllcan wifee, so ba-ad, so 
ba-ad 1 ’ he said plaintively. 

“ Miss Craglemuir was seized with a wild 
desire to shriek with laughter, but she wisely 
suppressed It. She felt that with the frank 
avowal of her scholar the end of her useful- 
ness at Bethany was drawing near. It so- 
bered and saddened her. 

“Ah Moy accompanied her In sullen 
silence to the door of the house In K Street. 
Well-dressed church-goers gazed curiously at 
the pair, and many facetious remarks were 
bandied about. Fragments of this found 
their way to the ear of Major Craglemuir 
as he was taking his afternoon airing In the 
park, and filled him with wrath. The Major 
Is a testy, pompous specimen of the retired 
army officer, and takes himself very seriously. 
His sense of dignity and propriety Is never 
for a moment In abeyance, and covers him- 
self and all his belongings like a pall. 

“ ‘ This thing shall be stopped,’ he de- 
clared, fuming with rage. ‘I have put up 
with Janet’s Infernal nonsense long enough! 
I won’t have her the laughing stock of the 


150 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

town ! She shall give up this Chinese Sun- 
day-school business at once ! But what next, 
what next?’ he groaned. ‘Really, Janet is 
getting quite beyond me — something deci- 
sive will have to be done. Each new fad is 
more damnable than the other! Will there 
never be any let up ? God knows I have been 
a good father, and let her have her own way 
in everything — nearly everything; but this is 
going a little too far! If her mother had 
lived things would have been so different. 
Ah, me ! ’ And muttering angrily to himself, 
he whacked the inoffending shrubbery with 
his cane. 

“The old gentleman’s walk was quite 
spoiled. 

“When Miss Cragiemuir and Ah Moy 
reached the house in K Street the young wo- 
man thanked her pupil for his escort, and 
politely wished him a good afternoon. As 
she was about to leave him he madly seized 
her around the waist, exclaiming, ‘ Ah Moy 
kissee you good-bye ! ’ and tried his best to 
do so. Miss Cragiemuir screamed, and 
nearly fainted with fright. Luckily, the 
Major turned the corner just at this moment, 
and speedily took in the situation. He rushed 
at the Chinaman, hurling him to the pave- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 15 1 

ment, and beat him soundly with his ever- 
ready stick. Then he bestowed several well- 
directed kicks upon the prostrate form. Ah 
Moy scrambled to his feet and fled, closely 
pursued by the enraged Major; but the nim- 
ble-footed Chink managed to make good his 
escape, darting into a friendly alley, and dis- 
appearing. 

“ The terrified girl hurried into the house, 
and received shortly afterward from her 
father a brief, but spirited lecture, which she 
will long remember. He sternly declared, 
after touching upon all of her hobbies, — 
he called them by a stronger name, — that if 
she continued to give him trouble he would 
close up the Washington house and live in 
future at The Oaks, the Cragiemuir place 
down in Maryland. This dire threat proved 
most effectual, for Janet hated The Oaks, 
and she recalled with disagreeable vividness 
one never-to-be-forgotten year spent there as 
a child. So she went to her room and wrote 
to the superintendent at Bethany that a sud- 
den change in her plans would force her to 
give up her class. The letter, a masterpiece 
in its way, closed with expressions of the 
deepest regret, and was duly received by the 
excellent Mr. Bagby, who felt that both 


152 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


Bethany and himself had sustained an irrep- 
arable loss. 

“ But the affair of the Chinaman by no 
means ended here. 

“Ten minutes after his unpleasant en- 
counter with Major Cragiemuir, Ah Moy ar- 
rived at his place of business in Four-and-a- 
half Street, a mass of bruises, and with a 
heart full of hatred for his assailant. Per- 
haps, after all, the fellow had meant no 
harm. In his guileless, imitative way he had 
simply tried to do what he had often seen 
American young men do. Had he not fre- 
quently observed big Policeman Ryan kiss 
the red-haired widow who kept the lodging- 
house around on Missouri Avenue? Did not 
Muggsy Walker — across the street — salute 
his sweetheart in the same manner? Ah Moy 
had many times witnessed what struck him 
as a most absurd ceremony on the part of the 
foreign devils; but he had watched them 
closely, though, and flattered himself that he 
too could do the proper thing when occasion 
called for it. He had, in fact, done so, and 
was beaten for his pains I This was a h — 1 
of a country, anyhow, thought he; after this 
he would stick to the good old ways of his 
native land, and have a whole skin to his 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 153 

credit. The teachings of a long line of philo- 
sophical ancestors were by no means lost 
upon this their up-to-date descendant. No 
more monkey tricks for him ! 

“ On the night of the beating, Ah Moy 
did not feel equal to presiding over the tables, 
so the resort was closed for the first time in 
many months. Down in the dark sub-cellar 
he soothed his ruffled feelings with a long, 
quiet smoke, and meditated upon elaborate 
though somewhat impracticable schemes of 
revenge as he lay in his bunk. 

“Several days later the Chinaman, still 
sore and in a bad humor, swung himself on 
a car for Sam Yen’s, whose laundry was some 
distance up town. Yen was a quiet, easy- 
going fellow, and Ah Moy thought it great 
fun to badger and worry him whenever there 
was nothing more promising in view. On 
this particular morning Ah Moy found Yen 
shaking with a chill, and almost too weak to 
drag himself across the room. Sam scarcely 
replied to his tormentor’s teasing, and the 
latter was about to leave the place in disgust, 
when a well-known countenance appeared in 
the doorway, and Dennis Coogan came in. 

“ Coogan was Major Cragiemuir’s facto- 
tum, and Ah Moy, who had spent many a 


154 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

weary hour opposite the house in K Street 
waiting to catch a glance of Janet Cragie- 
muir, knew him by sight. Coogan presented 
a ticket and demanded his ‘ wash.’ Sam Yen 
reached feebly for the pink slip of paper, 
peered up and down the rows of bundles on 
the shelves, and finally announced that the 
garments were not ready, but would be later 
in the day. Coogan then stalked out, stating 
that he would call again at five o’clock, 
sternly warning Sam not to disappoint him. 
Coogan aped the Major to the life, and Ah 
Moy, recognizing the caricature, hated him 
heartily for it. Yet, the Chinaman, sitting 
behind the counter, with his eyes -nearly 
closed, paid but scanty attention to the cus- 
tomer; but when Coogan left, a look of su- 
preme cunning flitted over his wooden face. 
He was silent for a few moments, and then, 
to the surprise and delight of Yen, volun- 
teered to remain and complete the day’s 
work, urging the sick man to turn in until he 
felt better. Sam Yen gladly accepted the 
offer of his kindly disposed countryman, and 
Ah Moy hurriedly left for his own laundry 
to get, he said, a very superior polishing 
iron, promising to return in a few moments. 
When he found himself on Pennsylvania 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 155 

Avenue near Four-and-a-half Street he en- 
tered the tea, spice, and curio emporium of 
Quong Lee. 

“ Quong Lee was not only a shrewd mer- 
chant, but a skilful chemist as well, and was 
regarded with deep reverence and esteem by 
his fellows. The eminent man, had he been 
a trifle taller, would have readily been taken 
for the great Li Hung Chang, spectacles and 
all; and it was owing as much to this won- 
derful resemblance as to his wisdom and 
learning that Chinatown groveled at his feet. 
He received Ah Moy effusively when the lat- 
ter, breathless and excited, burst into the 
stuffy little room at the rear of the shop. 

“ ‘ Welcome, thrice welcome, oh. Beautiful 
One,’ said Quong Lee (not in English, but 
in the liquid dialect of the Shansi region). 
‘ It fills my heart with joy to see you. Why 
have you thus deserted the lifelong friend of 
your father?’ 

“ Ah Moy smiled sardonically, for he had 
parted from Quong Lee but at sunrise that 
morning, after a warm discussion over some 
of the nicer points of the game, and the old 
man’s query appealed very strongly to his by 
no means undeveloped sense of humor. 

“ ‘ Most excellent and revered sage,’ re- 


156 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

plied Ah Moy dryly, ‘ pardon the unheard-of 
negligence, and generously deign to overlook 
the thoughtlessness of your sorrowing serv- 
ant — do that; and, Quong Lee, you must 
help me ! Quickly ! Quickly ! I want a 
poison such as you can easily distil. A mix- 
ture so deadly that the slightest contact with 
it is fatal ! Give me that, I pray you, and 
let me go. Hurry! Hurry! I am in 
haste ! ’ 

“ ‘ You ask much of me. Ah Moy, after 
your harsh, ill-timed words of the morning,’ 
remarked Quong Lee coldly. 

“‘Forget them, O Munificent; forget 
them,’ said Ah Moy, deeply contrite. ‘ Car- 
ried away by excitement, your abject slave 
considered but lightly what he then so fool- 
ishly said, and now so fervently regrets — 
and — and — let’s drop this powwow, Quong 
Lee. I have no time for it ! I tell you, man, 
I am in a hurry ! ’ 

“ Now, Quong Lee, while wholly in Ah 
Moy’s power, and quite well aware of it, 
exacted from all of his countrymen a certain 
amount of deference, and was loath that his 
visitor should prove an exception to this 
gratifying rule. Ah Moy knew this, but 
the little farce was becoming very irksome 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 157 

to him; it took up too much of his always 
valuable time, and he intended to forego it in 
future. Quong Lee, thought he, was a tire- 
some old goat who badly needed his whiskers 
trimmed and his horns sawed off; and he. 
Ah Moy, was the man for the job. 

“ ‘ I am indeed fortunate,’ said Quong 
Lee, ignoring Ah Moy’s concluding remark, 

‘ tremendously lucky, in fact, for I think I 
have in my laboratory just what you desire. 
Yes, I am sure of it. I will get it without 
further delay.’ He took down a lighted lan- 
tern from the wall, and lifting a trap door at 
the end of the room, plunged into the dark- 
ness. From the opening nasty, suffocating 
smells arose, and Ah Moy was driven out 
to the shop, where he impatiently awaited 
his learned friend. That worthy soon re- 
appeared, and paying no attention whatever 
to the odors, beckoned Ah Moy into the 
room. Ah Moy approached gingerly. 

“ ‘ My beloved child,’ said Quong Lee, 
exhibiting the regulation tiny phial of ro- 
mance containing a few drops of a white 
liquid, ‘ here is a poison ten-fold more subtle 
and deadly than that ejected from the fangs 
of the cruel serpent of the plain. The merest 
scratch from a weapon dipped in it will 


158 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


effect instant death. The victim curls up as 
a tender leaf in the midday sun. Yet it may 
be taken into the stomach with impunity. 
Strange, is it not? The minute quantity that 
you see here is all that I possess, and I shall 
feel honored if you will accept it. But,’ he 
added, clutching Ah Moy by the wrist, 

‘ should trouble corne, remember that I — 
Quong Lee ’ 

“‘Trust me for that, venerable Uncle of 
the Moon; your name shall not be breathed 
in the matter, whatever happens. Ah Moy 
is not the man to bring misfortune upon the 
lifelong friend of his father,’ and the fiendish 
chuckle which accompanied this remark filled 
the merchant-chemist with alarm. 

“‘A million thanks, O Illustrious,’ con- 
tinued Ah Moy, pocketing the phial. ‘ I 
shall never forget your generosity. In good 
time I shall repay. Ah Moy will not prove 
ungrateful. Pardon this brief visit, O re- 
vered wearer of the crimson blouse. We 
meet again to-night. Bathed in the glow of 
thy approving smile, I leave thee. We meet 
again to-night, to-night. For the present, 
farewell. And I say, old ’un, you were dead 
wrong about that last game. You get a 
little dippy toward morning, don’t you? 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 159 

Most old folks do. Ta, ta.’ He glided out, 
slamming the door behind him. 

“ Quong Lee followed his guest to the 
street, and watched his retreating figure until 
lost to sight. 

“ ‘ Curse him ! Curse him ! ’ hissed the old 
man vindictively. ‘ May the gods destroy 
him ! And Quong Lee will aid them ! Give 
me but the chance ; oh, give me but the 
chance ! ’ And he crossed his fingers. 

“ The subject of this cheerful soliloquy re- 
turned without delay to Sam Yen’s, who wel- 
comed him with a wan smile, and after ex- 
plaining some minor details of the work, 
crept off to his cot. Ah Moy immediately 
began his self-imposed task, and worked 
with a will, crooning the while a quaint Celes- 
tial air. It was ironing day at Sam Yen’s, 
and the new hand did not object particularly 
to that part of the process. By a quarter 
after four he had completed the job, and 
surveyed with much satisfaction the neat bun- 
dles, duly ranged on the shelves. 

“ Dennis Coogan arrived at dusk, and 
throwing down his ticket and some small 
change on the counter, walked off with his 
parcel, mumbling something uncomplimen- 
tary about the dirty haythin’ who kept honest 


i6o THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


folks waitin’ for their clothin’. Later in the 
evening Sam Yen appeared, much refreshed, 
and relieved his kind assistant. Ah Moy then 
left, cutting short the thanks of his coun- 
tryman. 

“ Honesty is the best policy, and it is to be 
regretted that this astute maxim had not 
been more thoroughly kneaded into the 
moral make-up of Mr. Dennis Coogan. Ar- 
riving at the house in K Street, Coogan, 
sneaking through a side entrance and across 
the yard at the rear, took his master’s cloth- 
ing up to his own little room over the stables, 
where he carefully selected such articles as 
seemed to strike his fancy. It was the night 
of the coachmen’s ball, and Dennis did not 
propose to be eclipsed at that event by any 
Jehu who ever handled the ribbons. So there 
in readiness lay the hired dress-suit, the 
Major’s gleaming linen, and the other neces- 
saries of evening attire. Coogan leisurely 
donned the unaccustomed plumage, paying as 
much attention to his toilet as a debutante 
when arraying herself for her first cotillion. 
After struggling into a remarkably obstinate 
shirt he selected the highest collar he could 
find, put it on, and admiringly surveyed the 
general effect in a cracked mirror, turning 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND i6i 

his head this way and that as he did so. Sud- 
denly, with a gasping cry, he lurched for- 
ward, and fell heavily to the floor. 

“ Great was the horror and distress in the 
Cragiemuir household the next morning 
when the shockingly discolored body of the 
ill-fated Coogan was found. Major Cragie- 
muir, who was attached to the man, was 
sorely grieved by his death; and as there 
were no relatives to claim the body had the 
poor fellow buried from the K Street house, 
which was closed until after the funeral. The 
family physician and his confreres who ex- 
amined the corpse were puzzled for some 
time as to the cause of Coogan’s death. 
Cases of this sort, they solemnly declared, 
while not unknown to the profession, were 
yet extremely rare; and the long scientific 
name which was inscribed on the register at 
the health office as the disease that carried 
off Dennis Coogan had certainly never been 
seen there before. The slight scratch under 
the chin made by one of the sharp points 
of the collar was quite unnoticed in the 
rigid inspection to which the body was sub- 
jected. 

“ On the evening following the untimely 
death of Dennis Coogan, impelled by a curi- 


i 62 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 


osity which he could not resist, Ah Moy 
sought out the fashionable neighborhood 
where the Cragiemuirs resided, and found, 
as he had scarcely dared hope, the mansion 
closed and the badge of mourning on the 
door. He saw a dim light burning in 
the front parlor, and in his excited fancy 
could see the still form of the hated Major 
reposing in the satin-lined casket beneath the 
flickering gas jets. The Chinaman laughed 
aloud, and then a look of supreme terror 
came into his face, for he thought he saw a 
menacing figure leave the house, and with 
clenched fists start over to him. 

“ Ah Moy, shrieking, turned and fled. 

“ He finally took refuge from his imagi- 
nary pursuer at Wo Hong’s. Here he drank 
repeatedly a fiery liquor which the proprie- 
tor, serenely untroubled by the revenue laws, 
dispensed to his pals for a trifle. When Ah 
Moy staggered into his den several hours 
later, Quong Lee, who had arrived on the 
scene, noted with much satisfaction the 
ghastly appearance of his friend. 

“ ‘ If he keeps this up for any length of 
time,’ thought the learned man, ‘ I shall be 
spared the performance of a very unpleasant 
act. Murder is not in my line — now — any- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 163 



Ah Moy, shrieking, turned and fled ! ” 


i 64 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

way. It is trying work for an old man 
like me — and the police forever at one’s 
heels!’ 

“ Leaving his associates in charge of the 
tables, Ah Moy wearily sought the adjoin- 
ing room, a filthy, ill-lighted apartment, with 
rows of bunks along its sides. Opening a 
cupboard he drew forth a pipe and a small 
jar of opium. His stained fingers trembled 
violently as he rolled a much larger pill than 
usual and placed it in the bowl of his pipe. 
He had consumed a frightful quantity of 
the stuff in the past few days, and his 
nerves were in just the condition that re- 
quired a larger amount than ever to quiet 
them. 

“ He stretched himself at full length in 
the nearest bunk and proceeded to lull the 
awful fantasies which threatened his reason. 
With a moan he buried his face in his pillow; 
for at the end of the room he saw a grim 
phantom whom, he felt sure, the doubly ac- 
cursed Quong Lee had maliciously admitted. 
The old man should pay dearly for this on 
the morrow! Ah Moy felt his fingers tight- 
ening convulsively around the throat of the 
dying Quong Lee; he could hear the croak- 
ing in his victim’s wind-pipe, and the grue- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 165 

some death-rattle ! The sounds were all well 
known to the Chinaman, and recalled a chain 
of lurid experiences. 

“ ‘ I should have done it before,’ he mut- 
tered, as in his fancy he kicked the body 
aside. 

“ He grew calmer. There was a bright 
gleam of hope in the thought that with the 
death of Major Cragiemuir his wooing 
would be far less difficult. As to the girl re- 
turning his love — bah ! Women were not 
consulted upon such matters — in China. He 
smiled, for he felt that his triumph was as- 
sured. 

“ Radiant visions came to him. He was 
floating in space, wafted by perfumed 
breezes. Around him were lovely faces 
dimly outlined in circles of roseate clouds. 
Each face was Janet Cragiemuir’s, and all 
smiled most bewitchingly at him. Showers 
of white and yellow blossoms fell at in- 
tervals, and the orchestra from the Imperial 
theatre at Pekin boomed lazily in the dis- 
tance. 

“Happy, happy Ah Moy! 

“ But the Chinaman, though a hardened 
smoker, had badly miscalculated matters, for 
when Quong Lee came in at daybreak to 


i66 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

awaken him the ‘ Beautiful One ’ had been 
dead many hours!” 

“Now, Mr. Denmead,” said Colonel 
Manysnifters, turning to another representa- 
tive of the press, “ it’s your turn. Let us 
have it good and strong. I have read your 
East Side Sketches, and like ’em immensely. 
Can’t you give us a touch of New York in 
yours? ” 

“ I’ll try,” said Denmead modestly, 
“ though it isn’t exactly a story. It was just 
a passing incident, but it was something that 
I will not soon forget. An affair of that kind 
is apt to make more or less of an impression 
on a fellow. Maybe you will agree with 


XI 

WHAT HAPPENED TO DENMEAD 

“ Several years ago I found myself in New 
York; penniless, weary, and heartsick. I 
wandered one morning into a tiny park, 
mouldering in the shadow of the huge sky- 
scrapers with which Manhattan is every- 
where defaced. I sank upon a bench, pulled 
a soiled newspaper from my pocket, and 
scanned for the fiftieth time the ‘ Help 
Wanted’ columns. Work I wanted of any 
kind, and work of any kind had eluded my 
tireless search for days — ever since my ar- 
rival in New York. The benches about me 
were filled with bleary, unshaven men; some 
asleep, others trying hard to keep awake; 
each clutching a paper which presently it 
seemed they might devour, goat-like, in sheer 
hunger. The stamp of cruel want convulsed 
each hopeless face, and crowsfeet lines of 
despair lay as a delta beneath each fishy eye. 
About us in all directions towered huge mon- 
uments of apoplectic wealth — teeming hives, 
167 


i68 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


draining the honey from each bee, tearing 
from thousands their best years, their finest 
endeavors, their very hearts’ blood — all to 
swell the wealth of a bloated few ! And we, 
the drones, sat mildewing in the little open 
space below! 

“ The man next to me, his head hanging 
over the back of the bench in ghastly joint- 
lessness, awoke with a snort, stared about 
him stupidly, and something like a sob bub- 
bled up from his Adam-appled throat. He 
wiped his eyes with the back of a grimy paw, 
and diving into a greasy pocket pulled out 
a short black pipe. Between consoling puffs 
he jerked out, ‘ A man’s a damn fool — a 
damn fool, I say, to come to New York to 
look for a job! That’s why you are here. 
Oh, I know. I can tell. You’re a stranger 
all right; that’s easy to see. You look the 
part.’ 

“ ‘ That’s so,’ said I, ‘ and worse. I am 
about down and out. Financially, I stand 
exactly twenty-one — no— twenty-three cents 
to the good.’ 

“ ‘ I am right with you, friend — only more 
so. I have nothing, absolutely nothing ! 
You’ve twenty-three cents, hey? A bad num- 
ber, that twenty-three. Give me the odd 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 169 

penny, and perhaps luck’ll change for both 
of us.’ I put the copper into his hand, and in 
chucking it into his pocket he dropped it. 
It rolled out to the center of the walk, and in 
an instant not less than a dozen men made 
a determined rush for it. There was a des- 
perate struggle; others joined; it became a 
mad, screaming, tumbling, sweating mob. 
Instantly a crowd from outside gathered, and 
a free-for-all fight began. Hundreds flocked 
in from the adjacent streets. The affair 
quickly assumed the proportions of a riot. 
Knives and revolvers were brought into play. 
It was every man against his neighbor, and 
an unreasoning wave of frenzy and blood 
seemed to sweep over the crowd. The police 
rushed in from all quarters, but their efforts 
seemed powerless. My new acquaintance 
and myself, the innocent cause of all the 
trouble, managed to escape from the thick 
of the fray — he with the loss of a hat and a 
bleeding face; and I in much worse shape — 
physically sound, but— I had lost my twenty- 
two cents ! We hurriedly entered a dark 
canyon which led to wider paths where quiet 
reigned. The tumult in the park, sharply 
accentuated by pistol shots, came to us like 
the roar of falling water. 


170 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

“‘What an astonishing thing!’ said my 
companion. ‘ And all for a penny — a bloom- 
in’ penny! And to think of the fabulous 
wealth stored in the midst of all these tigers ! 
Do you suppose that mere walls of steel and 
granite could withstand the fury of such a 
mob as this great city now holds, straining at 
its leash? Horrible things will happen in New 
York one of these days, and we will not have 
long to wait for it either. Discipline of the 
crudest sort, and a leader, is all that is needed 
to start a great army of destruction in mo- 
tion ! ’ 

“ ‘ But how about the police, the Federal 
and State troops, supposed to be in instant 
readiness?’ I urged. 

“ ‘They would count as nothing before the 
fury of an organized mob. A portion of the 
monstrous mountain of wealth stored here in 
New York City should be moved to a central, 
safer point; say St. Louis, Omaha, or even 
further west to Denver. It’s piling up here 
is an ever-present menace and danger. It is 
a serious problem.’ 

“ ‘ Quite so,’ agreed I ; ‘ but there is a much 
more serious problem confronting you and 
me just at present, and that is a certain sick- 
ening emptiness which makes one weak and 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 171 

giddy. My few coppers stood between us 
and — and — well, serious thoughts of the fu- 
ture. I have never begged nor stolen, and 


“ ‘ Oh, don’t bother about that. The 
thing’s easy,’ said my friend; ‘ just watch me.’ 

“A fat, prosperous-looking man ap- 
proached. His sleek face, garlanded with 
mutton-chop whiskers, was creased in smiles. 
Evidently a broker who had just ‘ done ’ 
some one, was my sour thought. There 
were but few on the street, and the outlook 
for business was favorable. 

“ ‘ Pardon me, friend,’ whined my com- 
panion, stepping out in front of him, ‘ but 
can’t you give a fellow a lift? I’m a me- 
chanic by trade, and ’ 

“ ‘Oh, cut it out! ’ said the fat man, leer- 
ing knowingly. ‘ I’m on to what you’re go- 
ing to say. Why don’t you fellows vary your 
song and dance — just for luck? G’wan. Get 
out of the way ! ’ And he tried to side-step 
us. With a quick glance over his shoulder, 
my new acquaintance shoved a revolver 
right up in the teeth of the prosperous one. 
Skyward the podgy, bejeweled hands, and 
we deftly went through him, securing his 
wallet, watch, scarf-pin, and then stripped 


172 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 




THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 173 

his fingers of their adornment. It was over 
in a flash, and the fat man on his back by a 
dexterous push and go-down which the Japs 
might add with advantage to their much- 
vaunted jiu-jitsu. 

“‘Beat it!’ urged my companion, and 
‘beat it’ we did; dropping casually but hur- 
riedly into a corner saloon, then through a 
side entrance out into another street. I 
looked at my friend admiringly. 

“ ‘ I suppose there’s hell to pay around the 
corner just now,’ said he coolly; ‘but we are 
as safe here as if we were in Jersey City — 
and safer. Still, it won’t do to linger. Come 
this way,’ and he led me into a lunch-room of 
the baser sort. 

“ ‘ Sit here, at this table, and I will eat at 
the counter. We had best not be seen to- 
gether, though they would never look for us 
here.’ I gazed at him in amazement. My 
bearded friend had become smooth-shaven ! 
His neck, but a moment before collarless, 
was now surrounded by a high white-washed 
wall; he flashed a crimson tie, and somehow 
his clothes looked newer and sprucer. Of all 
the lightning-change acts I have ever seen, 
this was certainly the extreme tip of the 
limit 1 


174 the statesmen snowbound 

“ ‘What do you think of it?’ he asked, 
grinning, jamming his whiskers still further 
into his pocket. 

“‘Wonderful!’ said 1. 

“‘Now,’ said he confidently, am abso- 
lutely safe, and I don’t think the stout party 
saw you. Don’t worry. I caught only my 
reflection in the little swinish eyes. I saw 
nothing in the background. What’ll you 
have to eat? There seems to be enough in 
the pocket-book — which I ought to empty 
and chuck — to buy up several lunch-rooms, 
with the Waldorf thrown in for good meas- 
ure.’ 

“ ‘ How much? ’ I asked. 

“ ‘ Not now,’ he whispered, ‘ not now. 
Wait until we get out. The proprietor is 
looking at us. Here’s coffee, and pie, and 
sandwiches — ice cream — oh, anything you 
like 1 ’ 

“ We munched in silence and he pushed up 
a twenty-dollar bill in payment, much to the 
surprise of the man behind the counter. The 
change pocketed, we strolled out leisurely, 
picking our teeth with easy nonchalance. 

“ ‘ I hated to give that fellow the double 
cross, but really, old cock, that is the small- 
est denomination in the bundle. Wander 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 175 

down to the Battery with me and we will in- 
vestigate further.’ 

“ ‘ You’re an Englishman,’ I essayed know- 
ingly. ‘ I am on to the lingo.’ 

“‘Not on your life!’, said he. Born in 
Newark, New Jersey, deah boy, I assure 
you — right back of the gas-house; what? 
These togs o’ mine were handed out to me by 
an old pal — a cockney valet — and the accent 
goes with ’em, don’t ye know? ’ 

“ ‘ I’m on,’ said I, sadder but wiser, and 
then relapsed into reverie. 

“The Battery was thronged as usual, but 
we found a bench away from prying eyes. 

“ ‘ Gee whiz 1 Jumping Jerusalem 1 Jul- 
ius Caesar! Joe Cannon!’ murmured my 
friend as he emptied the stuffing of the wallet 
into his hat. ‘Am I dreaming again? I’ve 
often dreamt that I have found a bunch of 
money — picking it out of the gutter, usually 
— dimes, quarters, halves — bushels of ’em ! 
But this is different — oh, so different! Can 
it be real? Am I on the boards again ? Can 

it be only stage mon ? Look here; 

isn’t this a windfall? Isn’t this a monu- 
mental rake-off for a non-profesh? Heaven 
knows I’m but an amateur in this line — nor- 
mally an honest man, with but slightly way- 


176 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ward tendencies. Whooping O’Shaughnessy ! 
Just look! Six one-thousand-dollar bills, 
fifty one-hundreds — that’s eleven thousand! 
A sheaf of fifties and twenties, swelling the 
total to something like twelve thousand ! 
Hoo-ray! Again I ask, am I dreaming? 
Pinch me. I’ll stop snoring, ’deed I will. I’ll 
turn over, dearie, and go to sleep again! 
Twelve thousand plunks! Wouldn’t that 
everlastingly unsettle you? Well, well, well! 
Not so bad for a moment’s effort before 
breakfast, eh? Ain’t it simply grand, Mag? 
I wonder who and what our friend is, any- 
way. He wasn’t dressed just for the part of 
bank messenger, though he had the inside 
lining, all right! A pursy old broker, I 
guess. Might have been a book-maker — you 
never can tell. Anyhow, I am sort o’ sorry 
for the chap. It would break me all up if I 
lost a wad of that size! Who is he? Hell, 
what a fool I am ! Here is the name on the 
flap of the wallet. 

ABNER MCNAMEE, 

24 Broadway, New York. 

“ ‘ Abner McNamee ! Abner McNamee ! ! 

Abner Mac ! Ain’t this the limit! 

Abner McNamee! We can’t take this 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 177 

money! Just my damned, hydra-headed 
luck! You hear me? It has always been 
that way with me — all my life! We can’t 
take this money, pardner ! It’s got to be re- 
turned! This money’s all got to go back — 
every cent of it! Ain’t it a shame? Ab- 
ner McNamee! I oughter have known him 
at the time, but I only saw him once, and 
that was years ago. He has taken on a lot 
of flesh since then. Abner McNamee! 
Who’d ’a’ thought it?’ 

“‘Who the devil is Abner McNamee?’ I 
asked, scenting treachery. This was a share 
and share alike affair, and no crooked work, 
and — I needed the money! ‘What’s the 
game — this McNamee business? Do you 
think I am a fool ? ’ 

“ ‘ Look here, pal,’ said my companion 
quietly, ‘ say bye-bye to your dirigible and 
drop to the ground. You’re all up in the 
air. Of course we are together in this thing. 
I’ve no thought of doing you. I know you 
can make trouble if you want to. You could 
turn me over to the first cop that heaves in 
sight, and there’s one over there now — why 
don’t you do it? Of course / would have 
something to say in that event, and then there 
would be two of us in trouble; and with Ab- 


178 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

ner confronting the pair, the odds would be 
all in my favor. He’d never recognize me! 
No, sir! But what’s the use of hot-airing 
like this? Be good, now, and listen to me. 
We can’t, can’t, can’t keep this money! Do 
you hear? Now let it filter through your 
make-up — slowly at first, and then as fast as 
you like. Honest, pal, we’ve got to give it 
back ! ’ 

“‘Why?’ I asked, still skeptical. 

“ ‘ Oh, what’s the use of your going on 
like that? You worry me with your fool 
questions ! Here, take it all and accept the 
responsibility, and I will leave you ! Here — 
take it ! Take it, you idiot ! ’ 

“ Somehow, I hesitated — held back by 
Heaven knows what. 

“ ‘■No,’ said he, returning the wallet to his 
pocket, ‘I thought not! You know a thing 
or two after all. You haven’t lost your 
mind. Looks are deceptive sometimes.’ I 
instantly regretted my indecision. 

“‘What’s the matter with the money?’ I 
asked. ‘ I was just kidding you. Give it to 
me. Hand it over. I will take it.’ 

“‘Never-r-r! Never-r-r!’ he whispered 
mysteriously. ‘ This money belongs to THE 
CAUSE!’ 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 179 

“ ‘ Oh, come off ! ’ said I with a foxy wink. 
Don’t you think because I am a countryman 
I gambol exclusively on the green. I am not 
altogether to the emerald by a pailful I I’ve 
got you where I want you, and you know it ! 
Quit your fooling and hand over the wallet ! 
There’s a cop over there now,’ I added mean- 
ingly. 

“‘Yes, over there — I see him,’ said my 
companion slowly. ‘A cop — a very neces- 
sary evil, highly ornamental cops are, and oc- 
casionally useful. Now kindly look over this 
way, deah boy, and you’ll see two more of 
’em.’ 

“ I looked, and then WOW! (The 

Milky Way.) 

“ They took me to Bellevue, and three 
days later I found myself echoing, ‘Six one- 
thousand-dollar bills, fifty one-hundreds — 
that’s eleven thousand. A sheaf of fifties and 
twenties, swelling the total to something like 
twelve thousand! Hooray! Am I dream- 
ing? Pinch me. I’ll stop snoring, ’deed I 
will. I’ll turn over, dearie, and go to sleep 
again! Twelve thousand plunks. Well, 
well, well! Not so bad for a moment’s ef- 
fort before breakfast, eh? ’ 


i8o THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


“ And my nurse smiled wearily.” 

“ That New York is a fearful and wonder- 
ful place,” said Colonel Manysnifters gravely. 
“ I will never forget the first time I went 
there as a young man. Why, I didn’t get 
any sleep at all ! The first night I was there 
I turned in about two-thirty, took off my 
clothes, and got in bed; but it seemed sort of 
foolish and wasteful. Sleep in New York? 
Well, hardly. I argued that I could do that 
at home — and me paying three dollars a day ! 
So I got right up, dressed, and started out to 
see the sights. It was about three o’clock 
then, and there wasn’t any one around but 
the night clerk and myself. I asked him if 
he couldn’t lock up the house and go out with 
me for a little while. He smiled, and said 
that he would like to do it, but he was afraid 
the boss might kick; so we had a drink to- 
gether, and I went by myself. I was a green 
boy then and didn’t know any better, but I 
am on to the little old town now, all right! 
They all know me up there. As soon as I 
get off the ferry, perfect strangers come up, 
call me by name, shake hands, and slip me a 
card. I don’t mean to brag, but I know the 
location of every poolroom in the city! I 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND i8i 


have a friend in New York who writes the 
dramatic criticisms for the moving-picture 
shows; he puts me in touch with the theatri- 



“ — Writes the dramatic criticisms for the 
moving picture shows.” 


cal and newspaper element, and I have seen 
some high old times up there, I tell you I 
One night — but, hold on — I’ve had my in- 
ning, Mr. O’Brien is at the bat, I think.” 


1 82 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

Mr. O’Brien blushingly admitted the 
charge. 

“ This is the first time I ever spoke in pub- 
lic,” said the young man modestly, “ and I 
crave your indulgence. If you don’t mind, I 
will tell you about Judge Waddington and 
myself at Atlantic City last summer. Every 
one in Washington knows the Judge, and 
hopes that some day Congress will take up 
his claim and adjust it satisfactorily. The 
old gentleman is about all in, but we are do- 
ing what we can for him.” 


XII 

o^brien's narrative 

“ I MET him on the Boardwalk, and asked 
him where he was stopping. 

“ ‘ Oh, a nice, homelike place — right over 
there,’ indicating its position by a careless 
wave of the hand; ‘ nice place, quiet, no music 
at meals, or that sort of thing. Good cook- 
ing, no dogs or children. I came down here 
to rest. None of the glare and glitter of the 
Boardwalk hotels for me ; no, sir I ’ 

“‘What’s the name of your place?’ 1 
asked. 

“ ‘ Hasn’t any name — just a private cot- 
tage ; old Southern family, one or two paying 
guests, you know. They have been coming 
here for years; never took boarders before, 
but the head of the house was caught in the 
Knicknack Trust affair last fall. Funny how 
many were hurt by that bust-up. Nearly all 
the boys down in Washington say they were 
stung. As I remarked, old man Montgom- 
ery is rather hard up just now; but proud, 
i83 


1 84 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

dev’lish proud, sir. I consider it a privilege 
to be taken in. They have rented the cot- 
tage next door for their guests. Every con- 
venience.’ 

“All very fine, but the Judge avoided my 
direct gaze. Seaward he turned a shifty eye, 
and I knew that he was lying. He looked 
depressed and down at the heel, and bore the 
signs of recent illness. I led him, unresist- 
ing to the nearest cafe, and properly stimu- 
lated, he told me that the Washington sum- 
mer had proven too much for him, that the 
boys had kindly advanced the wherewithal for 
a two weeks’ stay at the shore, and that he 
had been very sick, but already felt like a new 
man. 

“ I ordered another. 

“ ‘ While I am very snugly fixed down 
here, Patsy,’ said he confidentially, ‘ I must 
confess I was a little disappointed in the lo- 
cation of the cottage. From the picture on 
the letter-head the waves seemed to be curling 
under the Boardwalk onto the lower steps of 
the front porch. Every room with a sea 
view, and no mosquitos, the circular said. 
But the printer evidently got hold of the 
wrong form. We are a durn sight nearer 
Atlantic Avenue than the Atlantic Ocean ! ’ 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 185 

“ ‘ Regularly buncoed, eh?’ I ventured. 

“ ‘ As a matter of proximity to the sea, yes. 
But I am sure the Montgomerys are not a 
party to the deceit. They took the printed 



“ Framed in the doorway . . . stood one 
of the finest examples of the early 
Gothic I have ever seen.” 


matter along with the new cottage, I reckon. 
How long will you be down, Patsy?’ 

“‘Just the week-end, sir. My, but look 


i86 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


over there ! ’ Our eyes were glued on the en- 
trance. Framed in the doorway, with the 
glare of the white street as a background, 
stood one of the finest examples of the early 
Gothic I have ever seen. She gazed haugh- 
tily about the room, and at the waiters who 
rushed to her side. She selected the table 
next to ours, and dropped into a seat, her at- 
tenuated form sharply at right angles, like 
a half-closed jack-knife. With long bony 
fingers glistening with rings she raised her 
veil, and opening a chatelaine bag, pulled out 
a handkerchief, smelling salts, and a gold- 
meshed purse. Then, with a murmured or- 
der to the waiter, she settled herself com- 
fortably, and with an imperial uplift of the 
pointed chin the foxy face swung slowly 
around to us and settled with a grimace of 
recognition upon the Judge. My old friend 
reddened, and moved about uneasily. 

“ ‘ Pardon me a moment,’ said he, rising 
and starting over to her. 

“‘Why, Judge Waddington, what a de- 
lightful thurprise,’ shrilled the lady of perox- 
ide in a voice that carried all over the room 
and back as far as the bar. 

“ ‘When did you come down? Thith ith 
thertainly fine.’ The judge mumbled some- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 187 

thing which I did not catch — it sounded like 
‘ Oh, hell ! ’ 

“ ‘ Here, Patrick,’ he said, without enthu- 
siasm, ‘ I want you to meet a friend of mine.’ 

“ An introduction to Miss Clarice de Dear, 
who had appeared in the original Black Crook 
company with Lydia Thompson, was no 
every-day occurrence in my humdrum exist- 
ence, and I was perhaps visibly affected. She 
overlooked it, and greeted me with girlish 
enthusiasm. 

“ ‘ Tho glad,’ she lisped, ‘ to meet any 
friend of the dear Judge’s, and ethpethially 
you. I have heard tho much about you.’ T 
wondered what in the devil she had heard. 
‘I’ve known Judge Waddington ever since I 
was a little tot.’ 

“ ‘ And not so long, either,’ said the Judge 
gallantly — and grimly. The fair one shot a 
curious glance at him, and smiled a smile, 
sour in its exceeding sweetness. 

“ ‘ I have often heard the Judge mention 
your name. ’Twath only the other night he 

thaid What will I have? nothing, 

thanks, I have just ordered.’ But she joined 
us later, and still later, when the conversation 
became general; that is, we all tried to talk 
at once. 


i88 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


“ From the Judge’s attitude I gathered 
that he was commencing to celebrate the 
birthday of some famous man or the anni- 
versary of a great battle. He never drank 
otherwise. To-day, he informed me, he was 
tanking up in honor of Bolivar, the great 
South American Liberator. 

“ ‘ Ah, Bolivar ! Great man, Bolivar ! 
Waiter!’ 

‘“Yes, sir!’ 

“‘The same!’ 

“ From Miss de Dear, ’midst smiles and 
tears, I gleaned that she had once adorned 
the stage, pursued always by the jealousy of 
her less-talented sisters. Heaven knows she 
couldn’t help the gifts of Nature which had 
come to her through no effort of her own — 
her birthright. The de Dears were all that 
way, as far back as Sir Something-or-the-other 
de Dear who came over with the Conqueror 
— and her mother’s first cousin went to the 
Philadelphia Assembly — how could she help 
it? Noblesse Oblige! All the girls were 
jealous — the cats ! Anyhow, she had quit the 
scene of her early triumphs, lured by the at- 
tractive offer of a vaudeville manager. In 
this new field she appeared for a short time; 
but when on the roof they put her on the pro- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 189 

gramme sandwiched between a troup of per- 
forming dogs and a bunch of bum acrobats — 
she kicked! Any self-respecting artiste 
would have done the same ! I agreed with 
her. She, too, like the Montgomerys, and 
other noble families, had been caught in the 
Knicknack disaster, and her savings swept 
away; and rather than be dependent upon the 
bounty of an immensely wealthy English aunt, 
she had consented to represent a great New 
York publishing house. 

“ ‘ The World’s Famous Fat Men,’ twenty 
volumes; cloth, levant, or half-calf; ten dol- 
lars down, and a dollar a month far into the 
hazy future. Of course this was hardly the 
place to talk business, she said, but I had her 
card and knew where to find her. Every one 
should have the work. All the best people 
in New York, Philadelphia, Sioux City, and 
other places were putting it into their librar- 
ies, and so on, and so on. 

“ This flotsam and jetsam of her talk came 
to me from time to time as confidential 
asides from the main flow of palaver which 
rolled along steadily toward the Judge. The 
Judge, poor fellow, showed plainly the ef- 
fects of the struggle; so much so, that I sug- 
gested a stroll up the Boardwalk. 


190 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

“We arose with an effort, and went out 
to meet the bracing air. 

“‘Ah, the thea, the thea; the dear, dear 
thea ! Always tho — er — wet and rethleth. I 
inherit a love for the water from my father’s 
great uncle who was an Admiral in the Brit- 
ish Navy.’ As this was the first intimation 
Miss de Dear had given as to a fondness for 
water, except on the side, I felt that living and 
learning were synonymous terms. So, per- 
haps, did the Judge, who said, apropos of 
nothing in particular, ‘When I was in Cali- 
fornia in fifty-nine, I saw a snake over forty- 
seven feet long. The onery rascal wouldn’t 
coil up, and they had to carry him from 
place to place on flat cars. Now what do you 
think of that? ’ Miss de Dear gazed dreamily 
out at the tossing waves, and said nothing, 
while I caught hold of the Judge’s elbow to 
steady him. Plainly the celebration was on. 

“ ‘ My dear, dear Patsy,’ he said affection- 
ately. 

“ ‘ Oh, I tell you what let’h do,’ said the 
maiden impulsively; ‘let’h go and have our 
fortunes told. I am dying to have mine 
told. Last night I dreamt for the third time 
that Aunt Genevieve had died and left me 
^11 her money. Maybe there is something in 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 191 

it. The palm of my left hand has been 
itching all day.’ 

“So to the fortune-teller’s we went. 



Professor Habib. 


“ Professor Habib was a Parsee, with fea- 
tures Irish in their intensity. As I gazed at 
him I thought of the far-reaching kinship of 


192 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

man. Here was a Fire-worshipper out of 
Persia, who for all the world looked like my 
brother Mick; and God knows Mick’s no 
Parsee ! Habib wore his native costume with 
a litle red fez on top. 

“‘Be seated,’ he said courteously; again 
reminding me of Mick. 

“ ‘ Which one first?’ he asked, pointing to 
a little inner room curtained from view. The 
Judge suggested genially that we all go in to- 
gether, but the professor explained that one 
at a time was his invariable rule. 

“ ‘ Oh, all right, all right,’ said the judge, 
somewhat miffed; ‘far be it from me to — 


“ ‘ Ladies first,’ said I. 

“ ‘ ’Tis well,’ said the professor, with a sa- 
laam; and the pair disappeared behind the 
draperies. 

“ ‘ I wonder how long they are going to 
stay,’ said the Judge, after we had waited 
some fifteen minutes. The conversation be- 
hind the arras, at first low and murmuring, 
was becoming animated. I distinctly heard 
the Parsee say, ‘ Who are the blaggards ye’ve 
brought here wid ye? ’ followed by an unin- 
telligible reply. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 193 

“‘What did he say?’ queried the Judge, 
looking up sharply. 

“ ‘ I don’t understand Parsee, sir,’ said I. 

“‘That was no foreign tongue; that was 
American — with a brogue. I don’t like that. 
Let’s hurry them up. I say, what time is it? ’ 

“ We reached for our watches. They 
were gone ! Instinctively I felt for my wal- 
let. Gone ! My scarf-pin. Gone ! 

“ We made a wild rush for the little inner 
room. 

“ Miss de Dear? Gone! And the Par- 
see ? Gone I 

“ Later, when we had made our report to 
the police, and I was guiding the Judge home, 
I asked: 

“Who is this de Dear? Where did you 
know her? ” 

“ ‘ Never laid eyes on her before I ’ growled 
the Judge.” 

“ Another ‘ Jewel ’ 1 ” said Colonel Many- 
snifters. “ You find them everywhere.” 


XIII 


AN UNINVITED GUEST 

In the lull following Mr. O’Brien’s story the 
conductor and porter went hurriedly through 
the car out to the rear platform; where, it 
seems, they had been summoned by the brake- 
man. They quickly reappeared with as be- 
draggled and woebegone a specimen of hu- 
manity as it has ever been my misfortune to 
see. An unwashed, evil-smelling, half-frozen 
Hobo was dragged into the car, to our utter 
amazement ! 

“ Hold on a minute, conductor,” said Col- 
onel Manysnifters, as they were rushing the 
captive through. “What have you here? 
Where did you get him? Who are you, 
sir?” asked he of the tramp. “Who are 
you, I say, and what are you doing on this 
strictly private outfit?” 

The tramp, quite unabashed, blew upon his 
fingers to warm them, picked up a cigar stump 
from the floor, lighted it, and looking around 
the group said courteously, though with a 
bored expression: 


194 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 195 



An uninvited guest. 


196 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

“ Gentlemen, I got on your train about 
the time you did, though hardly in the same 
way. A ride on the trucks and brakebeams, 
while exhilarating in the extreme at the out- 
set, soon becomes wearying and nerve-rack- 
ing, so at the last water tank I made bold 
to take up my quarters on the rear platform, 
with an occasional climb to the roof for ob- 
servation and change. But, my, it is cold 
out there! If it hadn’t been for my friend 
here,” exhibiting a flask, “ I would have 
frozen to death. Alas, poor fellow, he 
is empty now!” and he held it up to the 
light. 

“ It grew very dark and bitter as the night 
wore on; then the blizzard caught us; but 
even in spite of that, I fell into a doze, to 
be rudely awakened by this fellow — but what 
can you expect from a person of that kind? ” 
Here the brakeman gave a scornful grunt, 
and the conductor smiled broadly. 

“ After all,” the tramp continued affably, 
between cigar puffs, “ their lot is a hard one, 
and it is not for me to cast the first stone. 
So here I am, gentlemen, right with you, 
and my fate is quite in your hands.” This 
with a magnificent wave of a grimy paw, and 
something approaching a curtsy. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 197 

“You should get down on your knees, fel- 
low, and thank this brakeman. He undoubt- 
edly saved your life. It would have been 
your last sleep if he had not come along! 
Where is your gratitude?” asked Senator 
Pennypacker severely. 

“You may be right, sir,” said the tramp 
politely. “ I don’t dispute your word. I 
ought to be friendly with that fellow, as I 
see he is a brother of mine. He belongs to 
my order. I can tell by his watch-charm — 
that square bit of enamel with the rising sun 
in the middle, and the letters ‘ I. O. U.’ in 
red, white, and blue, around it. Yes, he is 
O. K. I have been a member of many fra- 
ternities, and in better days I was the keeper 
of the ‘ Hoot Mon ’ in our local Caledonian 
club. Brother, accept my thanks. Perhaps 
some of these days I may be able to repay 
you with something more substantial.” The 
brakeman laughed, and by this time we were 
all in a melting mood. Senator Bull reached 
instinctively into his trousers pocket, and 
Mr. Ridley did the same. 

“Just a moment, gentlemen, just a mo- 
ment,” said Colonel Manysnifters. “ Now, 
sir,” said he to the tramp, “we have been 
telling stories here to-night — some of them 


198 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

fair, some pretty bad. Let us hear what you 
can do in that line. We will give you a 
chance. If you don’t make good we will put 
you off at the next station and turn you over 
to the authorities. Captain,” to the con- 
ductor, “ and you. President Madison, take 
our friend into the next car, give him some- 
thing to eat and drink, wash him up a bit — 
several bits — and let him come back here 
and do his best.” 

“ Sir, I thank you,” said the tramp with 
dignity. “Your idea is a great and noble 
one. My stomach is so empty that it hangs 
about me in folds. You have all doubtless 
seen a balloon awaiting the kindly offices of 
the gas-man — that’s me. But it will soon 
be remedied. Adieu for the present.” He 
left us, with the conductor in the lead and 
the grinning darky at his heels. 

“ The nerve of those hoboes is something 
astonishing,” said Colonel Manysnifters, 
walking up and down, and filling the car with 
smoke in order to cover up all traces of our 
visitor. I’ll bet a thousand dollars that that 
fellow had as good a chance at the start as 
any of us, — just threw himself away, — whis- 
key, I suppose, or women, or the platers — 
the combination more likely. Did you ever 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 199 

see such eyes? — like two burnt holes in a 
blanket!” 

“Yet he has the manners of a gentleman, 
and seems to have had some education,” 
said Van Rensselaer. “ Did you notice his 
small hands and rather classic profile? 
Bathed, shaven, manicured, and properly 
clothed, he would be much like the rest of us 
— externally so, at least.” 

“ May have been born a gentleman,” ob- 
served the Colonel, “ but he seems to have 
outgrown it. A college man, too, no doubt; 
but what does that signify? I have a friend 
who spent about six thousand simoleons on 
his son’s education, and at the end of three 
years all the boy had learned was to wear 
baggy pants, sport a cane, and yell ‘ Raw 1 
Raw I Raw I ’ — very appropriately — upon 
the slightest provocation. The kind of chap 
you will find dashing through the streets in a 
forty horse-power automobile with a hun- 
dred fool-power chauffeur in charge. As to 
the modern young woman, all the education 
she wants is to be able to write love-letters! 

“ But our visitor is certainly an individual 
of strong personality!” grunted Colonel 
Manysnifters, continuing to blow smoke into 
all parts of the car. “Whew! Open the 


200 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


window back of you, Ridley. It is hard to 
realize that he has left us ! He was certainly 
not ‘born to blush unseen, nor waste his 
sweetness on the desert air,’ eh?” 

“ The tramp problem is becoming a seri- 
ous one,” said Senator Pennypacker ponder- 
ously. “ The great army of the unemployed 
is steadily increasing. In New York City 
alone, on October the first of last year, there 
were no less than — just a second. I have the 
data in my bag. I will read you some figures 
that will astonish you.” 

The Senator arose to get his bag. Faint 
groans were heard as he left us. Senators 
Bull, Wendell, Baker, several Representa- 
tives, and the gentlemen of the press arose 
as one man and rushed to the button. Pres- 
ident Madison appeared and took the orders. 
Then Pennypacker returned with a look of 
determination on his face, and for fifteen 
minutes or more we were regaled with facts, 
figures, and statistics, all tending to prove 
that crime and wretchedness were on the in- 
crease throughout the country; that we were 
a degenerate people ; and other equally cheer- 
ful information. 

The hobo’s return was hailed with joy. 
He was vastly improved in appearance, and 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 201 


fairly radiated contentment. He sank into 
the seat that Colonel Many snifters had 
thoughtfully placed for him, — somewhat 
apart from the rest, — with a murmur of sat- 
isfaction not unlike the loud purring of a 
cat. Senator Bull pushed the cigars in his 
direction, and Van Rensselaer was equally 
assiduous with the whiskey and soda. Our 
visitor seemed perfectly at home. He drank, 
— drank deeply, — and wiping his mouth on 
his sleeve, drank again. 

“The hair of the goat is certainly good 
for the butt,” said he, smiling, and display- 
ing a set of marvellously white and regular 
teeth. “ Now, gentlemen, I am quite ready 
to fulfil my part of the agreement. If my 
little story interests you, you are welcome to 
it. It was this way. 

“ I was a doctor by profession, carpenter 
by trade, stevedore by occupation; then came 
harder times — booze — more b^oze — de- 
spair, illness, and I found myself discharged 
from the hospital, down and out — a hobo ! 
Yet tramp life is not so bad after all. I 
like it. I like the open-air existence, the 
freedom from care and responsibility, and — 
the hours. I am much alone, and genius, 
you know, grows corpulent in solitude. 


202 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


“ My name is Tippett — Livingstone Tip- 
pett. Age, of no special moment. You 
know,” he said pleasantly, “there are two 
things all of us lie about — our ages and our 
incomes. As this is a true story I will drop 
the age question. It is better so. 

“ My early life was uneventful. I was 
brought up by a pious mother in a quiet, 
deeply religious home; every influence up- 
lifting and good-instilling. I was taught, 
among other things, to regard liquor in any 
form with abhorrence, and that drunkenness 
was the sin of sins. I was surrounded with 
every safeguard a loving mother could de- 
vise, and it was not until after her death and 
my wife’s that I took to drink. My father 
and grandfather both died drunkards. He- 
redity, in my case, overcame both training and 
environment, and my troubles hurried on the 
inevitable. 

“ I passed through college . unscathed, 
studied medicine, walked the hospitals, and be- 
gan the practice of my profession under the 
most favorable auspices. I fell in love with 
a charming girl, and blessed with my good 
mother’s approval we were married. Our 
future seemed singularly bright and un- 
troubled. Life is a game and I was consid- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 203 

erably ahead of the game. I was certainly 
playing on velvet. 

“ When my Elizabeth and I announced 
that instead of going abroad we would spend 
our honeymoon at ‘ Raven Hill ’ our little 
world thought it quite absurd. They were 
charitably inclined, however, and made ex- 
cuses for us upon the ground that we were 
too much absorbed in each other to know 
what we were doing. But we did know, 
nevertheless. Our plans had been fully ma- 
tured long before we saw fit to reveal them. 
To spend a month or so at Neville Mason’s, 
down in Virginia, appealed very pleasantly 
to both of us, and I accepted my old chum’s 
offer with avidity. We were to have every- 
thing to ourselves, with just as many servants 
as we wanted. 

“We were married. There was a wed- 
ding breakfast, flowers, weeping relatives, 
old shoes, and a profusion of rice; nothing, 
in short, was omitted. A few hours later we 
left Jersey City on the southbound flyer. 
Breaking the journey at Washington, and re- 
maining over night there, we arrived at the 
tiny depot near our ultimate destination late 
on the evening of the following day. An 
ancient but still serviceable family carriage 


204 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

was in waiting, and we were conveyed in 
state to the mansion. 

“The house at Raven Hill is a huge affair 
of the Revolutionary period, with numerous 
modern additions, which fail entirely to har- 
monize with the quaint architecture of the 
original. The stables and servants’ quarters 
give the place the appearance of quite a set- 
tlement — a survival of slavery days one sees 
here and there in the South. 

“ We were shown to a suite of sunny 
rooms in the east wing which had been espe- 
cially prepared for us, and soon made our- 
selves thoroughly at home. From this agree- 
able vantage-ground we set out upon many 
pleasant expeditions into the countryside, re- 
turned the visits of our neighbors, and at- 
tended the chapel at the Crossways in truly 
rural style. Nothing amused us as much, 
though, as the negro servants. To them Eliz- 
abeth was ‘ Honey,’ and I, ‘ Marse Living- 
stone ’ ; and over at the quarters the little 
darkies gave rare exhibitions of dancing for 
our benefit, while solemn, gray-haired Uncle 
Ashby picked a greasy banjo. The .men 
sang in nasal, but not unmelodious tones, 
weird, crooning songs, with occasionally an 
up-to-date composition which found its way. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 205 

no doubt, from nearby Richmond. I shall 
never forget those happy evenings at Raven 
Hill; and in my dreams I often see and hear 
the negroes as they danced and sang in the 
moonlight. 

“ There were some good horses in the 
stables, and we did not spare them. Our 
cross-country dashes were most exciting, and 
the total absence of fences in the region gave 
us an apparently limitless expanse over which 
to wander. And that reminds me of a 
never-to-be-forgotten fox hunt which was at- 
tended by riders from all oyer that section of 
the country. Half a dozen foxes were cor- 
ralled at the ‘ round-up,’ and I could not help 
thinking how tame our alleged ‘ chases ’ at 
home appeared by the contrast. 

“ One day while roaming about the lower 
portion of the Raven Hill estate we stum- 
bled quite by accident into Dark Forest, 
vaguely hinted at by the negroes as a place 
to be avoided. This Dark Forest is a large 
tract of scrub oak, birch and holly, with dense 
undergrowths of briar; the haunt of innum- 
erable small birds that dart in and out, chirp-* 
ing faintly. In its depressed portions the 
‘ forest ’ has degenerated into a marsh 
through which a sluggish stream wends it 


2o6 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 


way to the distant river. Slimy reptiles bask 
in the warm sun and glide lazily over the 
black, oozy soil. At intervals the stillness 
is broken by the splash of a gigantic bullfrog 
returning to his favorite pool. This acro- 
batic feat is usually accompanied by a deep- 
throated cry of satisfaction, not unlike the 
twanging of an ill-tuned guitar. On the edges 
of the marsh mud-covered terrapins drag 
themselves through the weeds and disappear 
with surprising swiftness when they see an 
intruder. 

“Through this singular region, and over- 
grown with rank, sedgy grass, is a wagon 
trail, here and there along its winding course 
several inches under water; and into this 
wretched road we turned our horses. After a 
half a mile or so we left the marsh and struck 
into firmer ground. Then came a sharp 
bend in the undergrowth, and a clearing, 
several acres in extent, burst into view. Here 
stood a white-washed cabin in the midst of a 
little garden enclosed by a paling fence, and 
tall sunflowers, swaying to and fro in the 
breeze, brushed the low-hanging eaves. 
Flowers grew everywhere in profusion, and 
the rude porch at the front of the dwelling 
was half buried in a mass of fragrant honey- 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 207 

suckle. White curtains, gracefully looped, 
hung at the windows, and there was a charm- 
ing air of femininity and comfort about the 
place. We dismounted, and tied our horses 
at the gate. As we approached the cabin 
an immense cat dozing on the stoop sprang 
up hurriedly and darted into the vines. We 
knocked repeatedly at the door without re- 
sponse. Finally, some one was heard ap- 
proaching, so we walked to the lean-to at the 
rear, and there saw, coming up from the 
spring at the foot of the enclosure, a young 
and astonishingly pretty girl. She was not 
at all startled by seeing us; in fact, led us to 
believe from her manner that we were rather 
expected than otherwise. 

“‘Walk right in,’ said the little beauty. 
‘ I reckon you folks must be pretty well beat 
out after your long ride in the hot sun. It’s 
a goodish bit from here to the Hill, ain’t it? ’ 
“ ‘ How do you know that we are from the 
Hill? ’ I asked in surprise. 

“ ‘ Oh, I know,’ she replied. ‘ I saw ye 
both at the station when ye first come, and 
then again at meetin’ on Sunday. And you 
air a bride?’ she added, turning to my wife. 

“ ‘Yes, and a very happy one,’ said Eliza- 
beth, placing her hand upon my shoulder in 


2o8 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 


loving fashion. The child, for she was 
hardly more than that, gave an odd little 
sigh, but quickly brightened up again. 

“ ‘ I’m downright glad ye came,’ she said 
heartily. ‘ I do so like folks to be neighborly 
and sociable. Ye ain’t stuck up, nuther, like 
most city folks; no airs, nor the like o’ that. 
Pap’ll be home soon, and he’ll be glad to see 
ye too ! ’ 

“ Then she prepared a nice luncheon in the 
living-room. The lightest bread, delicious 
butter, preserved peaches, and some slices of 
marvellous old ham ; this, with a stone 
pitcher of cool, foamy milk, made life very 
pleasant to the weary travelers. The girl 
declined to join us, but sat near at hand, gaz- 
ing intently at my wife. No detail of Eliza- 
beth’s attire seemed to escape her. 

“ ‘ Oh,’ said she, partly to herself, ‘ what 
beautiful, beautiful clothes!’ And I regis- 
tered a vow that she should have just such 
an outfit as soon as we went back to New 
York. 

“ ‘ That child, properly dressed, would at- 
tract attention anywhere; she does not look 
at all bourgeois,’ said my wife; and this 
from Elizabeth, whose grandmother was a 
Boston Higglesworth, was a concession in- 
deed. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 209 

“ ‘ Do not tell her so/ said I ; ‘ it would cer- 
tainly spoil her. She is uncommonly pretty, 
I’ll admit; but unless something unforeseen 
happens she will probably marry within her 
own sphere of life, toil unceasingly, rear a 
brood of uncouth bumpkins — a hag at thirty, 
and thus fulfil her destiny.’ 

“ Elizabeth looked exceeding wise, but 
said nothing. 

“Ailsee came to us at that moment, and 
I looked at her closely as she stood in the sun- 
light, her bonnet dangling from her arm. 
She was undeniably beautiful — a dainty little 
head, crowned with a wealth of golden- 
brown hair, sweet hazel eyes, a lovely mouth, 
and the most bewitching dimples. There was 
nothing of the milkmaid style about her, for 
she lacked the vivid coloring and tendency to 
embonpoint of the typical rustic beauty. I 
pictured her to myself entering the room at 
one of the Bachelors’ on the arm of the 
leader of the cotillion, and the subsequent 
sensation and heart-burnings. 

“My reverie was interrupted by a hoarse 
voice calling, ‘ Ailsee ! Ailsee ! ’ — seemingly 
just over in the forest. 

“ ‘ Dad wants me,’ she said with a smile. 
‘ I’ll go and fetch him back with me. Please 
you folks wait a moment.’ And she tripped 


210 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


lightly down the garden and out into the wil- 
derness beyond. 

“Ten or fifteen minutes slipped by without 
the return of either Ailsee or her father. The 
footfalls in the forest died away, and the 
stillness was becoming oppressive. 

“ ‘ Remarkable, truly,’ said my wife, with 
a puzzled expression. ‘ Where could she have 
gone? Do you think her father is keeping 
her? Dearest,’ she added gravely, ‘don’t 
laugh, I feel — I feel — that something dread- 
ful is going to happen. I don’t know exactly 
what, but ’ 

“ ‘ Of course you don’t know exactly what,’ 
I interrupted. ‘ Come now, be a sensible lit- 
tle woman. You surely don’t believe in pre- 
sentiments. It is the heat; this sticky. 
Southern heat! I feel a little queer myself.’ 

“ But nothing I could say quite banished 
the singular fancy which had taken posses- 
sion of my young wife. Womenkind cling 
tenaciously to absurd ideas, especially when 
they are of the worrying kind; and Elizabeth 
looked so troubled and sad that I soon 
caught the feeling and became melancholy 
too. 

“ It was long past noon and intensely sul- 
try, and we were sitting on the porch where 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 21 1 


occasionally the faintest shadow of a breeze 
made life more endurable; Our horses, mad- 
dened by the flies and heat, chafed and 
stamped restlessly out at the gate. Elizabeth 
tried to amuse herself with a huge album of 
daguerreotypes which occupied the place of 
honor in the cabin parlor, and I smoked and 
lounged about, wondering what had become 
of Ailsee. 

“‘Well,’ said I at last, ‘we can not wait 
here forever. If I am not greatly mistaken 
there will be a storm before night, and we 
had better get out of this at once. We can 
come down here some other day and renew 
our acquaintance with the mysterious child 
of the forest.’ So back through the marsh 
we splashed our way, and arrived at Raven 
Hill barely in time to escape the storm, which 
broke with fury just as Uncle Ashby came 
around for our mud-bespattered steeds. 

“ Elizabeth went upstairs to change her 
dress and rest before dinner, and I settled 
down in the library with the Country Gen- 
tleman. There was a knock at the door, and 
Uncle Ashby came in. 

“ ‘ Marse Livingstone,’ he asked huskily, 
‘whar has you been wif de horses?’ 

“ I told him ; and during the brief account 


212 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 


of our adventures his face grew ashen and 
his eyes seemed about to start out of his 
head. When I was through he tottered over 
to the window, muttering, ‘ Gawd help us I 
Gawd help us ! ’ 

“‘What’s the matter. Uncle Ashby?’ I 
asked curiously. ‘What on earth are you so 
excited about? ’ 

“ ‘ Boss,’ said he entreatingly, ‘ doan’ make 
me tell you — you’ll be sorry ef you do. 
‘Deed, Marster, I really mus’ go now, sah; 
dey’s waitin’ fer me at de stables. And youse 
been down dar an’ seen it ! Oh, Lordy, 
Lordy ! ’ 

“‘Come back here,’ said ^ I, my curiosity 
getting the better of me. ‘ Don’t be a fool, 
old man; brace up. What’s the trouble? 
You are not afraid to speak out, eh?’ 

“ ‘Well, Marse Livingstone, ef I mus’ tell 
you, I ’spose I mus’ — thar doan’ ’pear to be 
no help fer it. But I’d ruther not, boss; 
’deed. I’d ruther not.’ 

“‘Go on; tell your story,’ said I impa- 
tiently. ‘ I guess I can stand it. Just try me, 
anyhow.’ So in the semi-darkness a marvel- 
lous tale was unfolded to my ears. 

“ In the first place. Uncle Ashby solemnly 
assured me that I had that day seen a ghost. 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 213 

The flesh-and-blood Ailsee, he declared, had 
been dead many years. Her father, Coot 
Harris, was a rough customer who took up 
his abode in the marsh — ‘ mash,’ Uncle 
Tucker called it — at the close of the Civil 
War. Here he gained a precarious liveli- 
hood by ‘ pot-hunting ’ ; for Harris and others 
of his ilk paid but little attention to the 
poorly enforced game laws of the section. 
Coot Harris, the marshman, had a daugh- 
ter, who, as Uncle Ashby* contemptuously re- 
marked, ‘ was peart enuff, as pore white trash 
folkses go.’ 

“This daughter was named Ailsee. 
Thwarted by he^ father in some love affair 
with a swain of the neighborhood, she had 
drowned herself in a gloomy pool in the very 
darkest part of the forest. The body was 
found shortly afterward and buried in the 
cottage garden. Harris then left the coun- 
try and has never since been heard of. All 
this, according to Uncle Ashby, happened 
twenty years ago. The ghost of the ill- 
starred Ailsee had occasionally been seen by 
the country folk, but always with dire results. 
Bad luck, disease, and in some cases death, 
had been the fate of those who saw the 
‘ ha’nt.’ One man lost his house by fire 


214 THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 

within forty-eight hours after the shadowy 
form crossed his path. The body of another 
unfortunate was found floating in the creek; 
his eyes wide open, staring horribly. The 
drowned man had but the day before made 
known the fact that he had seen the wraith 
of the marshman’s daughter. Still another 
poor fellow had been taken, raving and vio- 
lent, to the asylum. Numerous additional in- 
stances, equally as harrowing, were cited by 
Uncle Ashby, whose fervent belief in all that 
he said was rather impressive than other- 
wise. 

“ I listened patiently to the old man until 
he finished.. By that time the storm had 
ceased and the sky, suddenly clearing in the 
west, revealed the last rays of the setting 
sun, which brightened the room for a few 
moments. I laughed softly when Uncle 
Ashby went out, and all that I had heard of 
the ignorance, credulity, and superstition of 
the Southern negro came into my mind. I 
sat for a while, musing in the gathering dusk, 
and then went up to my room. 

“ The lamps had not been lighted in that 
portion of the house, and it was quite dark. 
The atmosphere was stifling, as all the win- 
dows had been closed at the approach of the 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 215 

storm. I raised them, and the cool, damp 
air, heavy with the odor of jessamine, floated 
into the room. Elizabeth, evidently greatly 
fatigued by the day’s exertions, had thrown 
herself upon a lounge at the foot of the bed. 
She was in her dressing-gown, and her face 
was framed in masses of wavy brown hair 
which had become uncoiled in her restless 
movements. I hesitated to awaken her, but 
as sounds from below indicated the near ap- 
proach of dinner I called her — at first softly, 
and then in louder tones, an indefinable fear 
stealing over me as I did so. I approached 
the couch, and tremblingly placed my hand 
upon her forehead. . . . Ah, God, I 

cannot tell the rest! 

“ Seven years have dragged their weary 
length along since I lost my dear young wife 
and the light of my life was extinguished 
forever! Now, all is darkness! darkness! 

“ Subsequent investigation, supported by 
the testimony of well-known and thoroughly 
reliable residents of the country, confirmed in 
every particular the truth of Uncle Ashby’s 
story. A visit to the marshman’s cottage 
some days after my wife’s death revealed 
a ruinous mouldering habitation, in the midst 
of a wilderness of weeds and vines. A 


2i6 the statesmen SNOWBOUND 

mournful, desolate spot, shunned and 
avoided by all for the past twenty years, and 

yet had I not seen ” Tippett paused 

abruptly, with bowed head and eyes tear- 
dimmed. 

“ Here, old chap, take this,” said Colonel 
Manysnifters, hastily pouring out and hand- 
ing him a stiff drink. Tippett, obeying, was 
somewhat revived, and continued. 

“ I returned to Brooklyn with the body of 
my wife. My mother followed her to the 
grave a few months later. All in the world 
that was dear to me was now lost. I took to 
drink; I sunk lower and lower, dissipated my 
little fortune, friends forsook me; and by 
quick stages in the descending scale I found 
myself, as I said before — an outcast! Yet, 
through all my troubles I have never enter- 
tained the thought of self-destruction. I 
have no desire whatever to seek — 


‘ The undiscover’d country, from whose bourn 
No traveler returns, — puzzles the will. 

And makes us rather bear those ills we have . 
Than to fly to others we know not of.’ ” 


It was long after midnight when Tippett 
concluded his story and the gathering broke 
up ; not, however, before sleeping-quarters 


THE STATESMEN SNOWBOUND 217 

had been found for the unfortunate man, and 
a promise given by Senator Bull to put him 
on his feet again in the far West — an offer 
gladly accepted in all sincerity, and a ven- 
ture which proved highly successful, as 
most of the long-headed Senator’s usually 
did. 

Morning brought relief, the track was 
cleared, and our train proceeded on its way, 
arriving at Washington many hours behind 
schedule; its occupants but little the worse 
for their experience — Colonel Manysnifters, 
I believe, with a slight headache. 


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